Blinking Child
by lizzbizz357
Summary: On the small island of Salus, located in the north blue, a mountainous ship shaped as a whale docked with one sole purpose, find an herb for their massive captain. They will soon find out though, that nothing ever goes as planned, especially for pirates. This the story of a young girl, and her amazing adventure like life. I don't own One Piece
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On the small island Salus in the north blue, a mountainous ship shaped as a whale docked with a sole purpose, find an herb for their massive captain. They will soon find out though, that nothing ever goes as planned, especially for pirates.

Marco, The 1st division commander of the Whitebeard pirates, volunteered for the petty task of going into town to search for an herb called Chaparral Seeds. After their previous dealer had run out of town, the pirates had been sailing throughout the north blue in hope of finding the seeds for their aging captain. Marco had volunteered only to take his mind off his captain's decreasing health. He was still the strongest man alive, but not as strong as he was years before. One day, his health will fail, and an era will end, but it won't be because of a damn seed, it will be in battle like a proper warrior.

He took an angry right, following the directions a sailor at port gave him. They were supposed to lead to an herb dealer on the edge of town, but it seems like he's going in circles. Everything looks the same on these small islands, thought Marco, frustrated.

At the next turn, Marco suddenly noticed an alley with a sign pointing down into it. The sign read Miss. Lynn's Herbs. Marco looked at his directions again, this wasn't where they lead to. He was too on edge to care though. Marco took down the unmarked alley, heading towards the herb shop.

As Marco opened the old wooden door, a tiny bell tinged, announcing his arrival. The store was filled with shelves that reached the ceiling, and were jam packed with all kinds of iffy bottles and jars. Strange smells leaked from each, giving the whole shop a pungent odor. Marco took the only clear path to the back of the store, where a desk stood.

An aging woman stood behind the desk, and who, Marco assumed, was Miss. Lynn (even if she looked a little too old to be a miss).

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me?" Marco asked, trying to sound pleasant despite his foul mood.

Miss. Lynn looked from the papers she was sorting through. After one glance she looked back down at her papers and said "Get out"

"What?"

"Get out" she repeated, not bothering to look at him.

Marco wasn't sure if he was understanding the situation correctly, because according to his memory, he has yet to say anything rude or mean, yet being the keyword. Marco decided to rephrase his question, "I am in town looking for some Chaparral Seeds, and it's commonly used in-"

"Get out" she said again, cutting him off.

Now Marco's bad mood turned even sourer, "What's wrong? I just want some seeds? Isn't that what you do?!" His voice had risen to a shout.

Miss. Lynn looked up from her papers, clearly annoyed at him for raising his voice in her shop. "We don't do business with pirates" she said simply.

"What?! Why not?" Marco slammed his palms against her desk, rattling an ink well.

"You are despicable people, now would you please get out of my place of business." She stayed completely clam as she said this, considering she knew who he was.

Marco was just about to yell at the woman again when the tiny bell attached to the door rang. Marco spun around to see the new face that was interrupting his tirade.

The new arrival was actually a small girl. She had short, wavy, dark blue hair that reminded him of a stormy sea. Two pieces curled around her cheeks, framing her tiny face. Her big eyes were a dark green, similar to tree moss. She was a tiny, frail thing, she couldn't be over the age if ten. A giant collar metal like necklace was around her thin neck and a thin white dress to match. She also held a basket of familiar looking seeds.

"Oi, girl!" The child jumped, but the jump was sluggish and tired, like she was incredibly weak, "I need those herbs."

This got a reaction from Miss. Lynn, "Mila! Get out now!" She yelled at the girl.

The girl, Mila, tilted her head to the side, "What's wrong? I thought you needed these," she lifted her basket of herbs.

"No, not anymore, just go!" Miss. Lynn's shout weren't that of a concerned family member or friend, it was more greedy, there was something else that Marco couldn't pin point. Now things were getting interesting.

Mila slowly backed out the door, concerned laced her features. The door slammed again as she left, bell ringing.

Marco curiously glanced at the woman again, "Who was that?" A sly smile spread across his face.

"None if your business, now get our or I'll call the marines!" She snapped.

Marco grinned, "Of course, I shall see you again" with a tip of his head, he left the store. And as he darted after the girl he heard the sound of a bottle hitting the door he just exited from.

Mila POV

I wonder what was wrong with Lynn, she seemed so tense. Maybe I brought her the wrong herbs or maybe it was that I interrupted her while she was with a customer. Maybe it was because I flooded the kitchen this morning trying to make breakfast, or when I tripped and broke the vase. Actually, I would be more surprised if she wasn't mad at me.

Well, at least she'll be happy when she finds the herbs I gathered for her on the windowsill.

I was walking around the back of the shop when I heard something. I tried to jerk around to see what's going on, but like always, I feel tired, so I just glance over my shoulder. I couldn't see anything behind me, so I continued towards Lynn's and I apartment above the store.

Lynn and I aren't related, that would be dreadful. Lynn is a terrible person through and through, the only reason she has taken care of me for most of my life is because the World Government told her to.

I would gladly go live with my parents instead, but I have no memory of them at all.

I was about to ascend the dreadful stairs that lead to our apartment when a man cleared his throat behind me.

"Excuse me,"

I turned around to see the same man from the store standing a few feet away from me. "Yes?"

"Well, I was wondering if you're a loud screamer?"

This man is very odd, why would he need to know that? But it is impolite not to answer people's questions, "I'm a very loud person all the time."

Without another word, the strange man hooked his giant arm around my tiny waist and took off.

"Excuse me!" I shouted, "I would like to be put down!"

The man refused to listen me as he raced down Main Street with me in his arm.

People on the streets stopped what they were doing to stare at us as we zoomed by,

"Isn't that Mila?"

"I think it is, but who is that man?"

"Don't you know? That's Marco The Phoenix, the first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates!"

"A pirate?!"

"Does Miss. Lynn know?"

"If she did the town wouldn't be in one piece, someone go tell her!"

"Alright!"

Before long, we were out of town and at the docks. I have never been to the docks, I have only ever been allowed to go farther inland. Lynn says the sea is an awful place.

"I'm not allowed to at the docks," I protested when he stopped running and took a clam stroll down the wooden dock.

He didn't reply though, "I want to get down, let go of me!" At first it was fun being carried through town, now the man was scary. I started to kick my small legs, trying to inflict some damage, but failing. I switch to banging on his back when my legs got tired.

He just kept ignoring me, I finally gave up on my weak attempts and let him carry me down the forbidden docks.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Marco POV

The girl would not stop huffing and puffing about how bad the docks were and how I'm so stupid. I was regretting my decision more and more as we neared the Moby Dick.

The Moby Dick's shadow came to rest on us and silenced the noisy girl. Finally, home. She was one of largest battleships to ever sail the sea, as strong and powerful as her captain. An equally large figure head of a whale made it an unforgettable sight.

I easily jumped from the dock to the deck of the ship, secretly hoping that everyone would be somewhere else when I brought the kidnapped child aboard.

Sadly, that was not the case. Most of the division commanders were lounging around on the main deck.

Thatch, the fourth division commander, was laying on his back, looking up at the clouds. He was the first to welcome me back, "Hey Marco, did you find..." He pauses as he sat up and observed the tiny thing in my arms, "it?"

"Well, he found something," pointed out the tanned 5th division commander, Flower Sword Vista, as he causally twirled his black mustache around his finger.

"Really Marco? Is it really that hard to get a date? I'm sure there are plenty of legally aged girls who would love to be your sweet heart." Thatch laughed. I scowled at him, and yes it is hard to find a date now a days.

Instead, I just mumbled "it's a long story,"

"Can I get down now?" The girl squeaked from her position in my arms.

As a response, I dropped her. This received a negative response from the crew when she squealed as she hit the deck.

"Marco! Are you heartless?"

"She's just a little girl!"

Izo, the cross dressing commander of the sixteenth division, swooped in from nowhere to come to the girl's aid.

"You angel, are you okay. Did the beastly pineapple man hurt you?" Soothed Izo, stroking the kid's stormy blue hair with one hand and putting the other on her knee.

The girl laughed, "He does looks like a pineapple!" She burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Her tiny shoulders heaving.

I rolled my eyes, "she's fine," I say, and start to walk towards Pops room. I regrettably needed to inform him of our new guest.

"Where are you going?" Thatch asked.

I simply replied, "Pops,"

He cleared his throat, "I think you left something," Thatch jerks his head towards Mila, who is still sitting next to Izo on the floor.

I am not bringing my kidnap victim to talk to Pops. I feel like he wouldn't take my report as well. So instead, I kept walking.

Mila POV

The pineapple head had left me alone on a strange ship shaped like a whale with a bunch of strange men and one weirdly dressed woman. What now?

"Darling girl, are you sure you're okay," that strangely dresses woman has been hovering over me since pineapple head had dropped me, and she was still concerned that a slight tumbled had permanently damaged me. She was a very strange lady, her voice was really low and she was virtually falt chested. Maybe that's why her traditional kimono was so low cut.

I nodded, I shouldn't judge people by their looks, just like books.

"So little chicky, how'd you get messed up with the one and only Marco the Phoenix?" Said a tall man with a brown pompadour hairstyle, and a black goatee around his chin. He also had a scary looking scar around his left eye.

I look at him blankly, he tried again, "Pineapple head,"

Oh, he should have just said so, "He came to Miss. Lynn's shop, and we met there."

"Who is Miss. Lynn?" Asked the strange woman.

"She's my legal guardian" I say.

"Where are your parents?" The lady asked cautiously, afraid of what my answer might be.

I shrugged, "I don't remember ever meeting them,"

A look spread across the deck, it held a mixture of understanding and sadness. Why did they look like that, it's nothing to worry about, I can't miss someone I've never met.

"Um, Miss, where am I?" I asked the lady. She gave me a curious look, while the man with the big hair and scar fell over laughing. The lady shot a glare at him, which only made him laugh harder. I didn't understand what was so funny though.

"Well darling, you're on the Moby Dick," she said smoothly.

"Home of the Whitebeard Pirates!" Cheered a large man with four tiny little buns popping out of his head and a strange goatee, the other men started to whoop and cheer along with him.

Wait, pirates? Oh no, this would not end well. I abruptly stood up, I quickly brushed off the dirt from my old white dress, and took a deep bow, my hair falling in front of my face as I did, "I am very sorry!" I said as loud as I could.

"Child, you haven't done anything wrong," the lady said.

I shook my head, "you don't understand, I didn't do anything, it's what's going to happen because I'm here."

"And what's that?" A tanned man with a curly black mustache and a top hat asked.

"Miss. Lynn will come and get me, and she doesn't like pirates." I explained.

The man who was laughing had stopped, and returned to an upright position, "and why would that be a problem?"

"Miss. Lynn is a Vice Admiral of the Navy."

Everyone got really quiet and solemn all of a sudden.

The lady spoke first, "Darling, who are you?"

"I'm Mila."

"And why is a Vice Admiral your guardian?"

"Because I have stuff for the government, so they don't want me to get lost,"

"What kind of stuff?" Asked the big haired man.

"Well," I started, "I keep all this stuff in my head, and it's really important."

"Wait," the big haired man's hands shot up, halting her, "so, do you mean you have, like actual things in your head, or like information?"

"Don't be stupid Thatch, that's impossible." The lady scolded the man with the big hair, the one she called Thatch. Then she looked at me, "right?"

I nodded, "They give me papers with numbers and stuff on them, and I store them in my head for them."

"Do you mean you have government codes mesmerized?"

I nodded.

The men all looked around, some men shared a glance, and silently nodded at each other.

"I think it's time you meet Whitebeard, Mila." Thatch smirked at me. Who's Whitebeard?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Marco POV

I ran my hand through my hair, due to its choppy, short length, I didn't have much to work with. The bright yellow color did make up for the lack of surface area, but sadly, it did make my head resemble a pineapple.

Pops and I have been sitting there for a few minutes by then. I had told him about my slight adventure in town, and our new guest, and since then he had just been staring at me. And since he had no hair, he kept his hands neatly folded under his chin. While I constantly fidgeted.

His cool calculating stare bore straight into me, making me uncomfortable in my own skin. Only Pops could do this to me. To everyone else, I was the one with the cool stare.

The deafening silence was broken by a knock from outside Pop's room.

"Yes?" Pops said after a pause.

Thatch's hair popped through the crack in the door. "Hey Pops, do you got a minute?"

Pops glanced at me and answered, "Yes, come in,"

Thatch emerged from the deck, but not alone. In followed Izo, and attached to Izo's hand was my very own kidnap victim. She was clutching Izo's hand with both her of her dainty ones. She wasn't afraid, she actually looked really happy.

Pops raised an eyebrow at the entrance of the girl. Mila, on the other hand, didn't take notice of the giant man. "Hi pineapple head!" She giggled as she spoke.

"Sorry to disturb you Pops, but I think you need to hear something,"

Izo unwound his fingers from Mila's hand. Izo put his hand on her back encouraging, "tell him what you told us about the marines."

Mila nodded, "Well, my guardians a vice admiral, 'cause I have numbers in my head and those numbers are really important-"

I stopped her at the beginning of a seemingly speedy rant, "the lady at the store is a vice admiral?"

She nodded, "Thunder Fist Lynn,"

Izo blanched, "Thunder Fist Lynn is Miss. Lynn?"

Mila nodded again, Pops chuckled, "Seven years ago all the papers said the famed Thunder Fist Lynn had retired, but she was really here." Whitebeard smiled at her, "you must be important."

Mila shrugged, "I just know some stuff."

Pops nodded, "Boys, could you leave us for a moment," this wasn't a question, it was a command.

Izo nodded and started to leave. When Thatch didn't move, Izo grabbed him by his yellow scarf and dragged him outside. I hesitated, this child was strange, but that didn't essentially mean she was dangerous. I was going to protest, but Pops had already noticed my expression and gave me a slight nod.

When I was closing the door, I heard little Mila say, "What do you mean by 'boys'?"

As soon as I closed the door behind me, Thatch nailed me in the arm. "What did I do?!"

Thatch arms flew up, "You closed the door!"

I rolled my eyes, "So?" I slumped against the wall next to Pop's door.

"Well, now how am I supposed to ease drop?" He protested.

"You could put a glass to the door?" Izo recommend sarcastically from his position on the other side of me.

Thatch contemplated this as he stroked his goatee, "that might work," he said as he nodded his head solemnly.

"I was just kidding," Izo protested.

Thatch ignored him, "gimme a sec, I'll be right back," he darted below deck, heading towards the kitchen.

"Last time I checked, he was banned from the kitchen," Izo said.

I nooded, "He set it on fire when he was trying to make cookies,"

Our thoughts were confirmed when we heard vicious yelling and pot banging from below. I shook my head, Thatch excelled at causing mischief.

Thatch raced towards us once again, he had only attained a few scratches from the cooks, and the only major injury was absorbed by his hair. It was crooked first of all, but it also held a variety of cooking utensils in its gel covered clutches.

"I got it!" Thatch held up a glass in triumph.

I rolled my eyes as he put the glass to the door backwards. "Wrong way, idiot."

Izo laughed at him when he blushed and flipped it the other way. He glued his ear to the glass, eyes squinted in focus.

"Can you actually hear anything?" Izo asked as he leaned in closer to Thatch.

He nodded, "she's saying something about eating, blinking, wearing a necklace, and something about being tired."

"That means nothing to us out of context," Izo said, annoyed, "are you sure that's what they're actually saying or-"

"Wait!" Thatch cut him off, "I think Pops just said something about a devil fruit,"

This piked my interest, "she's a devil fruit user?"

Thatch nodded, "or he said level loot,"

Izo rolled his eyes, "I doubt he said that,"

It was my time to roll my eyes, they were bickering like children, "Can you hear what they're saying now, Thatch?"

Thatch replaced his ear back on the cup, "No, I don't hear anything,"

"Nothing?" Izo asked, he nodded.

I suddenly jerked up, "Thatch, get away from the door!"

It was too late, the door was yanked open, and Thatch tumbled through, along with his stolen glass.

Pops towered in the doorway, looking disapprovingly at the Thatch at his feet, "Marco," Pops said.

"Yeah?" I stifled a laugh.

"Remind me to give the ease dropping talk again, I believe the last one didn't stick."

I nodded, smiling. Behind Pops, peeked a stormy blue head. Mila was holding Pops pant leg, grinning. She saw me and waved with her free hand. I awkwardly waved back, managing a sad attempt if a smile.

"Izo, gather up the commanders, we're meeting on the main deck, Thatch, apologize to the kitchen staff for breaking their glass," Pops directed, "and Marco, come with us."

Izo nodded, and darted off to the dining hall, where the most of the commanders could usually be found. Unlike Thatch, who slowly dragged himself up from the ground to make his walk of shame back to the kitchen. I pushed myself off from the wall to follow Pops and Mila. She kept up with Pops fairly well considering the height difference. For every step Pops took, Mila took at least five. I didn't want to admit it, but they were a cute pair. Mila, being a smiley child and Pops being a stern looking man. Something about the combination was appealing to the eye. Especially when I saw Pops crack a smile as Mila fumble after him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Marco POV

By the time we reached the deck, Mila was panting and out of breath. Even though she looked completely healthy and vibrant, she was impossibly weak. Using up so much energy to keep up with Pops had worn her completely out. How could she have eaten a Devil Fruit, I thought.

Pops took a seat at his spot on deck, sitting in his throne like chair, a perfect spot to watch over his sons. Mila sat at his feet, trying to catch her breath after what seemed like a marathon for her. I took my usual spot on Pops right. I spotted both Thatch and Izo standing by the railing, I also noticed that Thatch had received another bump on his head, no dubitably from the cooks. All the commanders were gathered, and most of the rest of the crew too. I am always taken aback when I see us all together like that, I kept forgetting that we were one of the strongest crews on the sea. It's always a pleasant surprise though.

The crew's loud chatter was dulled as soon as Pops took his seat. "You men are here so I can make an announcement. This is Mila," Pops nodded down to the girl at his feet, a few men who had met her when she first came aboard shoot her a friendly smile, "right now, she is property of the government as a human database." A few whispers of confusion were spread across the deck, but were silenced, "She holds all the top-secret documents from beginning of the Word Governments founding. She also knows how to decipher the government's codes." Cries of shock rippled through the crowd as the tiny girl sat there, completely oblivious to their conversation. "We are freeing her from her imprisonment by the government and giving her a place on this crew. But first," Pops motioned for Vista to come forward, "we will cut all her ties from the World Government. Mila would you stand up for me?"

"Sure!" Mila pushed herself up from the ground and stood a little away from Pops.

Pops continued again, "The government made this child eat a devil fruit at the age of three, then bound her powers until it was useful for them, Vista, free Mila from her collar." Vista unsheathed his sword. Everything started to make sense now, her necklace was made sea prism stone, and she was so weak all the time because she_ was_ a devil fruit eater. When I really think about it, she's not weak at all. With that much sea prism stone, a child her age shouldn't be able to move. And for her to be as energetic as she is, is amazing. Vista raised his sword preparing to release her from the collar.

"STOP!"

Vista lowered his sword to respond to the disturbance. It was Izo. "What's wrong? Do you not want to free this brat from the World Government?" demanded Pops.

"Of course!" Izo said, and walked forward toward Mila, "I don't want to ruin this gorgeous hair though." Everyone laughed at Izo as he bundled Mila's hair in a yellow ribbon. When it was secularly fastened with a bow, he said "You may proceed,"

"Thank you Onee- san," Mila thanked Izo. I sighed, she thought Izo was a woman, that was going to be an awkward explanation.

Vista raised his sword again, and this time swung it down onto the collar, as the best swordsman on the crew, this was an easy job for him. The collar was cleanly cut and popped off her neck and fell to the floor with a freeing thud.

Cheers erupted on the deck, only to be quieted by a wave of Pop's hand. "Mila, you have a choice to make now. Do you want to become my daughter and take up my mark and set sea with us, the Whitebeard pirates?"

Mila looked up at Pops, eyes wide, "Am I really allowed to?"

Pops chuckled, "You are free to do whatever you wish from now on."

Mila turned around and gazed at the crew, her eyes focused at Thatch and Izo. They both nodded encouragement and smiled, her eyes moved from one of my brothers to another, I could see her tiny brain working out her predicament through her eyes. Then those big mossy green eyes focused on me. That child was one of the most interesting things to have ever fallen onto the Moby Dick, it would be a shame to let such a girl go.

Mila POV

I was on a pirate ship. I was on a pirate ship, without my necklace. I was on a pirate ship, without my necklace, being offered to become a pirate myself. And I think I wanted to say yes.

Everything about this situation was like a dream, I felt like I could run miles I had so much energy. People were even smiling at me, that's something I have barley experienced my whole. I had a warm feeling spreading throughout me, it felt so nice, and I never wanted it to go away.

I looked back up the man called Whitebeard. He was an amazing sight, scars littered his cheats, muscles rippled throughout his body. He was like a hero from a book, so very powerful, but with a pair of warm eyes and a kind heart. I liked talking to him, and wouldn't mind it again.

"I won't have to leave?" I asked, trying not to get my hopes up.

A smile spread across the man's wrinkly face, "Not if you don't want to."

I nodded, confident in my decision, "Good, because I don't. I want to stay here."

When I said that, all the men on the strange ship started to yell and cheer. I was absorbed into hugs and handshakes from the many men as they surged toward me. Names and questions were being thrown out at random. I had trouble trying to keep everyone straight. Everything was so overwhelming. Then I remembered that I was free now.

I smiled at the men around me, and blinked. I appeared on top of the mast, laughing to myself as the men looked for me. It felt so good not to be restrained by that stupid collar. I could use my devil fruit powers now. I looked around the crew once more, looking for someone in particular now. Soon I spotted the yellow head, equally befuddled by my disappearance. Giddy, I blinked again. This time I appeared a few feet above Marco's pineapple head. I fell into him, my arms outstretched. He was stunned by my appearance and stumbled back as he took on my weight.

I warped my arms around his neck tightly, "Thank you so much for kidnapping me!" I yelled. It was thanks to him that I was free, I owed him everything for taking me from Miss. Lynn, even if it was against my will for a while.

I could feel Marco smile as he wrapped his arms me, returning my hug, "Anytime kid,"

Onee- san and the big haired man called Thatch came running towards Marco and I. "That was so COOL!" Thatch screamed

"It was very impressive Mila, you have a very good handle on your devil fruit powers." Onee-san complemented me.

I blushed, being praised was also new to me, "Thank you," I buried my head deeper into Marco's neck. I felt his chest rumple with a chuckle at my reaction.

"What devil fruit did you eat?" Onee-san asked.

I peeked up from Marco's neck, "I ate the Mabataki Mabataki no mi (blink blink fruit)."

Thatch inched closer to me, his hair only inches away from me, "So, can you fight with it?" he whispered, keeping his eyes on Onee-san. It looked like he was trying to hide something.

I shrugged, "I've never tried." Miss. Lynn had always forbidden me from any physical sports or activities. Secretly, I've always envied the village children who played soccer in the square or got dirty while playing in the mud. "But I would like to." I said with conviction. That's what pirates do, they fight, or at least they do in all the files I've decoded.

"NO!" Onee-san yelled. "I will not allow such an adorable child to participate in you barbaric fights." She waved her finger violently at Thatch. He recoiled away from Onee-san, afraid of her viscous wrath.

I'm confused, I thought I could do what I ever I want now? I looked up at Marco, who was laughing at their trifle, he wouldn't know how to answer me, and he was still a stupid pineapple head. My gaze swept across the deck, seeking someone who could answer my questions. I spotted my next target. I blinked up onto Whitebeard's shoulder, straddling it with a leg one both sides. I've neer ridden a horse before, but this was probably what it would have felt like. Whitebeard was HUGE.

Whitebeard only looked mildly curious by my spontaneous appearance, "I have a question," I proclaimed as close to his ear as I could.

He raised an eyebrow, "Yes?" there was a hint of humor laced in his voice.

"Am I allowed to fight?" I asked. Only then had Onee-san and Thatch looked up from their fight to notice that I had changed perches. Marco was relaxing against Whitebeards arm rest, looking fairly amused by the whole situation.

This got a chuckle out of him, "If that is what you wish." I smiled, satisfied with the answer.

"Pops!" Onee-san was astonished, "She's just a child, she could be killed!"

Pops nodded, "Right now she would," I scowled at Whitebeard, "but she has brothers to protect her now till she learns to fight properly."

Onee-san admitted defeat on the topic, but I was still a little confused on one thing, "I don't have any brothers." I protest. I actually might, but since I don't know who my parents are, I don't know if I have any siblings either.

Whitebeard's laughter filled the ship, I liked the sound of it, throaty and deep, straight from the chest, how a laugh should be. "Didn't you listen? You're my daughter now, and these are your brothers!" he made a wide swiping gesture around the deck, "This is your family now!"

Everybody cheered at Whitebeard's proclamation, I could only stare at the crowd. Family, the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children. A theory amost completely foreign to me. I've read about the premise, and it's fairly basic. But it's one thing to read about it and experience it. In my books, it talks about geology and ancestry. They discuss parenting methods and disciplinary actions. Not once have they described this feeling though. The warm sensation that starts in the chest and slowly flows outward, reaching both the finger tips and toes. The way it makes the eyes cloudy and fills the heart till its overflowing. They don't instruct you on how to stop smiling or to cease the tears that just keep coming.

The men quite down as they see me begin to cry. I can't imagine what they're seeing, I must be an ugly crier because everyone is staring. I've never cried before, so I wouldn't know. I haven't had a reason to cry my whole life, no friends or family to think about. And know I look around and all I see is family. I have something to cry about know, I'm so happy. I've never been this happy before.

"Thank you!" I scream, trying not to choke on my own sobs. I lunge into Whitebeards neck, wrapping my tiny arms around his thick neck, "Thank you so much!"

The deepest rumble erupted from Whitebeard's chest, "There is no need to thank anyone child, we're family after all." I sobbed even harder, not being able to express my joy any other way.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N)** Due to a helpful review, I've decided to add an author note. I hadn't had any beforehand because who really wants to read my rambling thoughts, but I guess if you're reading this, you already are. Thanks to everyone else who reviewed, I really care about what you think because I'm the only one who reads this before posting, so no peer editing here! If I make a mistake, or misspell a word, or you just have ideas or recommendations for future chapters, tell me. I read every review, and will usually reply. And now back to your regularly schedule program!

LB

Chapter 5

POV Marco

Mila's sobbing had sent her into a deep sleep. The way she had cried into Pops for so long was heart wrenching, but I was put at ease when her breathing had turned from choppy sobs to a steady shallow beat. The tiny child had fallen asleep in one of the great Emperors lap. An unbelievable sight.

I now relaxed against the railing of the ship, watching as the crew celebrated their new crew member, or at least that was the excuse tonight. I've never been one for extensive partying, but I won't deny a drink every once and awhile. I prefer to watch everyone's drunken stupidity, it's one of my favorite pastimes in fact.

I watched as Izo hovered near Pops and Mila. He would occasionally brush a piece of stormy blue hair to the side, of gently readjust Mila's makeshift dress. He would also ward off his drunken brothers who got too close to the child. For a pistol shooting pirate, he was very motherly towards his new sister.

Thatch seemed completely unaffected by the new comer as he was still drinking just as much as ever, maybe even more.

I was about to get up and join Vista as he devoured some partially tasty looking pastries when I heard splintering wood from the dock below. I could recognize the noise instantly, the benefit of destroying of marine ships for a living. I glanced at my Captain, seeing if he had noticed the disturbance.

He had. He was calmly looking at me, and nodded. It was one of those time when I just knew what he wanted me to do, it was a bond only a first mate and a captain could achieve.

I peered over the edge of the Moby Dick, to see our new guest. It was none other than Thunder Fist Lynn, and Mila's legal guardian, Miss. Lynn. From the looks of it, she had destroyed the beginning of the dock, disconnecting the rest from the mainland. Since we docked at the edge due to our great size, there was only a sliver of solid ground to stand on. That eliminated hand to hand combat, because if I fall in I'd be completely defenseless, and dead due to my devil fruit and all. It doesn't matter if my bounty's 750,000,000 berris, I'm a dead log in the water.

I jumped from my spot on the deck, transforming half way to down. I ate a mythical zoan devil fruit, giving me the ability to transform into a phoenix.

Transforming into a phoenix was the most freeing experience, the feeling of the wind under my wings, and my tail flowing behind me is heavenly. My flaming blue body wasn't just for looks though, I'm immortal. Unless I'm killed in battle, I will live forever, never aging, impenetrable to all dieses, I can heal any wound, and with all that, I'm still not as strong as the great Whitebeard.

I take my full from, circling Lynn, sizing her up.

The Vice Admiral smirks up at me, "Hello, Marco the Phoenix, I believe you have something I want."

I summoned my human body, but kept my vibrant blue wings, hovering above Lynn. "I assume you mean Mila?"

As an answer, Lynn clenched her fists, preparing for the fight. I smirked, it didn't matter if she was a vice admiral. She wasn't going to take my new sister. I dove on to her, swinging my leg right into her face. She held up her arm, and braced the kick with her form arm. This did nothing since I stored all my power in my legs. She was shoot off the tiny piece of dock left and flung to shore. I heaved a sigh, she barley even put up a fight, was she really a Vice Admiral?

I was still airborne when the aging women started to drag herself from the crater her body had created when it had collide with the island. "Still up for more?" I mocked.

Lynn turned and spit some of her blood to the side and wiped the corner of her mouth. She then spread her feet and raised her fists, a clear invitation for me to come and beat the shit out of her, again. I was in a playfully good mood, so I decided I wanted to mess with the horrible woman before I killed her. At my full speed, it only took me a second to get in her face. She didn't miss a beat though, she swung her fist at full force towards my face. I easily evaded this by grabbing her shoulders with my feet, know talons, and dragging her into the air.

I rose into the sky, reaching incredible heights with Lynn struggling in my clutches. "I want to get one thing straight," I say over Lynn's grumbles of protest, "if you ever come after Mila again, you will get much worse than this." With the final word, a dropped her into the ocean, a good mile from shore and two miles from the water. She probably couldn't come after Mila if she tried, she'll either be dead or paralyzed. Most likely dead.

I took a brief fly around the island, stretching my wings in full form, before causally landing back onto the Moby Dock. None were startled by my appearance, it was usual for me to relax in my phoenix form aboard the ship. And since I barley ever set anything on fire anymore, it's completely safe.

Thatch drunkenly stumbled over in my direction. "Marlo!" he slurred, "I mished you!" Then proceeded to tackle me in a sloppy hug. Thatch tended to get very clingy when drunk, only last week did he tie Haruta to the mast so he wouldn't leave him again. In truth, Haruta had only left to go to the bathroom for less than a minute.

In response to Thatch's clinginess, I started to peck his forehead. In response, Thatch clung tighter, mumbling incoherent nonsense sounding like "I wuv you too birdy."

Grudgingly, I changed back to my human form. Thatch's drunken self was surprised by the change of shape and let go, thankfully. I quickly made my way to Pops before drunk Thatch noticed my disappearance. Pops was still relaxing with Mila in his lap, but now with a bottle of sake in hand too.

"You dealt with the nuisance?" he asked after taking a gulp of sake.

I nodded, "But I recommend that we set sail in the morning, we don't know if anymore marines are lurking around."

He nodded, and glanced down at Mila, her mouth had cracked open and a slight trail of droll was leaking out. I chuckled at the sight and looked up at Pops, "She's going to grow up to be quite a woman, are you sure you're going to be able to handle a teenage girl?"

Pops smirked, "If I can handle all you brats, one girl will be easy."

I grinned at my captain, his serious composure always disappears around his family. It was nice to see him with a smile once and awhile.

"Don't you boys think it's time to put little Mila to bed?" Izo was standing before Pops and I, his hands on his hips, "Only if you plan to let her sleep outside all night and allow her to catch a cold?"

I laughed, only Izo would talk like that to our captain. Pops seemed unfazed by Izo's tone and nodded. "Go ahead, as long as you don't wake her up."

Izo proceeded forward and gently swept the tiny girl into his arms. She didn't even stir as Izo walked through the crowd to get to his cabin. Before descending below, Izo looked back at everyone and said, "If this girl wakes up because of you buffoons, I will shot every single one of you in the balls." He said this at a normal volume, but everyone heard, Izo was not to be messed with.

Pops sighed, "You heard him boys, I would keep it down."

I laughed and went off in search of those yummy looking sweets from before, quietly of course.

POV Izo

Mila was safely secured in my bed as I started to go through my closest. I would not stand another day with her in that dingy sack mistaken for a dress. Of course, I didn't have any clothing for a little girl, but I did have a sewing kit. I settled down into my overstuffed armchair with my sewing kit to one side and a bundle of random clothing to the other. Under the light of my one dim lamp, I set to work.

I jerked awake to stomping of feet above my head. I leaned back again, yawning. I had stayed up most of the night, but I finally finished something suitable for Mila to wear. I peaked over towards my bed, seeing if the girl was still sleeping.

She wasn't, she was gone. There was only an empty bed, no trace she had ever been there except some ruffled covers.

I jumped to my feet, and searched my room, throwing clothes from my closet and uprooting my mattress. I doubt she would actually be in any of these place, but I was desperate. After my room was completely ransacked, I took off towards the deck.

It was early morning, the sun had barley risen, but the deck was plenty busy. Crew members lazily wandering around in a morning daze, or a hung-over. Others were preparing the Moby Dick for departure.

I frantically searched the faces of the crew, maybe Mila had just wandered up here after waking up, but there was no sign of the small blue haired girl. I noticed Thatch leaning against the railing supporting a cup of coffee off to the side. I darted over to him in a frenzy.

"Have you seen Mila?" I demanded.

Thatch grimaced at my loud voice, obviously still hung-over, "Dude, why so loud?" he whined, "No, I haven't seen the chicky since yesterday, and we didn't wake her up so my balls are safe." He examined me closer, looking me up and down. "You're a mess," he finally proclaimed, "your makeups smudged and your hairs a rat's nest. What's so wrong that you didn't do your hair?" Thatch now seemed genuinely concerned.

I glared at him, "Now is not the time for your jokes Thatch, I lost Mila."

"Whoa, you're totally screwed, Pops is gonna kill you." For the severity of the situation, Thatch didn't seem all that concerned.

I ran a hand through my loose hair, "I know," I admitted, "Where's Marco, Mila seemed to like him, she might be there."

"He's in the dining hall eating breakfast, I just saw him, no kid in tow." Thatch took a sip from his mug with the number four inscribed on it. "Maybe you should just chill and eat some breakfast too, the kid couldn't have gone far. I mean, she's like 10, what do 10 year olds even do?"

"DO YOU NOT GET IT?! I LOST MILA!" I screamed at Thatch. Why couldn't he get it, if Pops found out before I found Mila I would be meat on a stick before long?

"What about Mila?"

Oh shit, oh shit, shit, shit, fuck.

"Izo," Pops regarded me, "What did you say about Mila?"

**(A/N) **Oh look! It's another note from your author! If you want to see pictures of Mila, you can go to my deviantart page, my deviant ID is lizzbizz357, hmmmmm, I wonder where I got that from? Like my writing, my art isn't perfect, but it's how I see Mila in my head.


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) **I have no idea why this took me so long to update, I've had it written since I uploaded chapter 5. Maybe it was my art teachers a b with an itch and made me redo my perfectly fine whale, or maybe cause last weekend was homecoming, or cause I can't write chapter seven to save my life. Sucky excuses, I know, but that's all I got for you. On another note, I rated this T for language, if you couldn't tell form Izo's little outburst from the last chapter. Just remember that they're sailors, and guess what? They're going to swear like one, so if you're not comfortable with that kind of thing sorry for not giving you a previous warning.

LB

Chapter 6

Mila POV

Nothing left to do, I had everything I needed to be a pirate now. I was standing in front of my bed in my tiny bedroom above the herb store. My bag was packed, and I ready to head back to the ship. I hoisted an old blue and white bag of Lynn's onto my shoulder and started out of the apartment. If I hadn't had my pack, I would have blinked out of town, but due to its heavy weight, I had to walk part way. I've never had a lot of material possessions, and the few I did have were books. When I turned nine Lynn decided she would allow me a book every month, so once a month we would go to the only bookstore on the island, I would pick the fattest book in the whole store. They were mostly medical dictionaries and such, but all of them were extremely precious to me. So in my one pack held two bio-engineering manuals, four herb encyclopedias, five phycology guides, one genealogy textbook and two journals on the study of the brain. It takes a lot of energy to blink such a far distance, and doing that while carrying all my books plus the seeds Marco had been seeking, which I had stuffed into the side pocket, would be exhausting. So my plan was to walk most of the way, and then blink onto the ship, going unnoticed. I hadn't wanted to bother Onee-san while she was sleeping, so I snuck out. The thing is, now I had to sneak back in.

I hopped down the long flight of stairs that lead up to the apartment, I no longer dreaded them though. Without my necklace, I had so much energy and know I felt like running up and down them. I saw everything from a new view after my necklace was removed. The herb shop didn't look creepy to me now. The rolling hills of Salus looked greener and playful instead of an impending workout to reach the other side. This new outlook might have been due to my newfound energy, or it could be that I was getting nostalgic. I was becoming a pirate, I probably wouldn't ever come back here. With so many things to see, why come back to this puny island in the middle of nowhere.

As I walked down the uneven cobble stone street, I decided I would come back. I would come back after travelling the world with the Whitebeard pirates and experiencing all the wonders the world has to offer as one of them. I would come back just to show this pitifully small island what I had become.

I smiled at my proclamation, looking forward to seeing new places, I've always wanted to go to the east blue I thought, the south blue would be nice too. I started to fantasize about all the islands I could go to, and in no time, I had reached the docks. Somehow, the beginning of the docks were destroyed the night before, so I had to blink right onto the ship. Since I hadn't got a good feel of the boat before I left, I appeared in one of the last places I had blinked before leaving the ship.

From my spot on top of the mast, I watched as chaos unfurled below me. Everyone was frantic and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I saw Onee-san face down on the deck, her body was heaving with sobs. What had happened?

I leaned forward, to try and get a better look, when one of my books slipped out from the top of my pack. I watched helplessly as it tumbled toward the hard wood of the deck. I whimpered as I saw my precious book land on its spine with a deafening thump.

Everyone below stared at my book, silently before breaking out in terrified shrieks resembling that of a little girl's cry. And as a little girl, I could verify this.

"It's raining books!"

"This is a sign, the world's gonna end!"

"Death by bio-engineering! Such a gruesome way to go!"

I watched horrified as one of the men poked it with a stick. So horrified that I didn't feel the presence behind me.

"You drop something?" a very pineapple-esque voice asked from next to me.

A shrieked as I saw Pineapple head with blue wings and talons. I tried to escape from the fearsome pineapple, but I had happen to forget that I was on top of the mast, and slipped off. Lucky for me, Pineapple had had fast reflexes. He grabbed me by the strap of my pack, and dangled me helplessly in midair.

"So this is where you've been all morning?" he inquired.

I blushed, embarrassed for being caught when I thought I was being so sneaky. "Good morning Marco," I lifted my hand in attempt of a wave.

He tsked my behavior and looked down at the crew gathered around my fallen book below. "Someone catch!" The men looked up at his voice.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing?!" I shrieked.

He only smirked at my reaction, then, the pineapple head had the audacity to drop me. This was a big ship, so it was only natural that the mast was just as large, my fall was going to be long one. I sailed downwards, in absolute shock. He had dropped me.

He. Had. Dropped. Me.

The stupid Pineapple head had dropped me.

And I didn't care that I was hurtling toward the unforgiving wood of the deck, I only cared that the idiot had dropped me.

The men below were scurrying in zig zags trying to determine where I was going to splatter when I made impact. I crossed my arm and puffed my cheeks, they were all stupid, especially Pineapple head.

I blinked out of my pack before I let one of those buffoons catch me. A crew member was very shocked to see that he didn't catch a small girl, but a giant pack of books. But they were missing two. One was still sprawled on the deck where it had fallen to its death, the other was in my hand.

I had appeared right above Pineapple head's head and swung my biggest herb encyclopedia at the obnoxious yellow tuff. Stupid Pineapple head felt me before I had gotten my revenge, and flew away. I smiled, two can play it that game.

He was now hovering above the deck, fiery blue wings pumping. I blinked to in front of him, to behind him, then side to side, trying to mask my location, becoming a blur in the sky. When I felt he was as confused as a pineapple could be, I swung my book again. The dumb Pineapple head was just as prepared as before, only this time he caught my hand with his talon. I struggled against hold as he dragged me to the safety of the deck.

Even before my feet touched the deck, I was tackled by Onee-san in a wet hug,

"MILA! I TOUGHT I HAD LOST YOU!" she said some more things after screaming that, but it was muffled by her sobs.

I blushed, "I'm sorry, I didn't think you would notice I was gone."

Onee-san looked up at me, eyes wide, tears had smudged her leftover eye makeup from yesterday. She looked shocked, "Of course I noticed, Mila."

I looked down at my feet, embarrassed. "Thank you," I mumbled as I returned Onee-san's hug.

Onee-san accepted the hug, "Anytime," she whispered in my ear. I grinned from ear to ear.

Just in time to ruin the heartwarming moment was Thatch. He came up from behind me and gently thumped me on the head with my fallen bio-engineering book. "You may have saved Izo's ass, but yours is far from that," he commented.

All Onee-san carried about was Thatch's use of such foul language in front of my "virgin ears", I on the other hand, was more concerned about my ass.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked. Then I used my secret technique, and I'm still not proud of this. I stuck out my bottom lip slightly and widen my already wide green eyes, then bobbed my head to the side as a finishing touch. I got the usual reaction from my audience, variations of "awwwws" and "ohhhh", with a touch of swooning thrown in there. This method had gotten me out a tight situation with a local librarian more than once.

Only one idiotic fruit was not as affected.

"Yes," Marco said, "you are. Pops was worried out of his mind."

"It took almost half the of the ship's sake supply just to get him to chill," Thatch recovered from my cute attack just in time to point this out, "and half of us to restrain him from killing Izo. It was a mess"

Marco nodded, "you need to go apologize before he goes on another rampage."

"But I didn't think I was doing anything wrong," I whined.

Marco shock his head, "Doesn't matter, you still have too. He's in his room, go now."

I pouted as I stomped my way to Whitebeard's room. I still don't see why I have to apologize, if Onee-san hadn't woken up, I could have there and back without anyone knowing. I was almost the perfect ninja.

Soon, Whitebeard's giant door loomed over me. I hesitated before knocking, I tried to knock as lightly as possible, I didn't want to wake him if he was sleeping. Well, that was a lie. I was actually hoping that he was so old that he wouldn't hear me knock so I didn't have to apologize.

Sadly, that wasn't the case. "Come in,"

I sighed, and instead of trying to open the solid wood door, I blinked into the room. Whitebeard was leaning back in his chair, a slight pink flush of pink colored his cheeks. Wow, he really must have drank a lot.

"Mila? I thought Izo had lost you?"

I blushed, "Um, not really. See, I went back onto the island to grab some of my stuff," I said, "and forgot to tell anyone I was leaving."

Whitebeard was about to say something, but I rushed to apologize, I didn't want to get in trouble with him, "And Marco said I shouldn't do stuff like that and I should I apologize, so I am. I'm really sorry for leaving the ship without asking." I blurted this out as fast as possible, and then without waiting for a reaction, I blinked out of his room.

Before I could run back to the main deck where my books waited, Whitebeard yelled for me. Now when I say yell, I mean yell. My name boomed throughout the ship, shaking the door and its hinges. I could feel the wooden boards shake beneath me.

Oh no, I instantly regretted my decision of leaving Whitebeard's room now. I slowly inched my way back to his door, this time I choose to slowly push it open, I was not ready to die.

I peeked my head in just barley, which was enough for Whitebeard though, because just as he saw a glimpse of my blue head, he started to speak.

"Mila, why do you think I was upset?" He asked. His voice didn't sound tense or angry, it was eerily calm.

I moved another inch forward, "Because I left the ship without asking?" The way he had asked me made me question what I thought was the answer.

"No, that's not the reason, care to take another guess?" he questioned again, there was now the slightest bit of humor laced in his tone now. He somehow kept the clam composure though.

This time I moved a foot forward, "You don't like kids?"

That got a tug out of the corner of his lips, "I actually love children."

I raised an eyebrow, this was surprising. I took a few step closer now, completely in the room now. "But pirates only like treasure?"

Whitebeard laughed, "In truth, I don't really care for treasure." He could tell that this statement intrigued me, and continued, "I'm going to tell you a secret Mila. I only have one desire,"

I was close to falling over because I was leaning forward so far. I had this thing with information, I had to know everything. So, knowing Whitebeard had a secret was killing me.

"to have a family," he said, smiling with his eyes closed, looking serene. "I was upset because I had thought I had lost a child, not because you left the ship. I was worried that I had lost a family member, and that's a pain I never want to feel."

I didn't know I was crying till I felt my tears rolling down my cheeks. Whitebeard had said this with so much conviction, it had moved something within me. And also helped me come to final conclusion, I knew where I belonged among the Whitebeard Pirate now.

I bowed my head in a sincere apology. "I'm very sorry for worrying you," I glanced up and wiped my tears, cracking a small smile, "Dad."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Marco POV

Mila had been on the Moby Dick for a few days by now, and seemed to be melding into the Whitebeard family nicely. She had one problem though.

"Haruta!" Mila exclaimed as she pointed to Kingdew, a large tanned man with short blonde hair, who was obviously not the tiny twelfth division commander.

Mila was sitting crossed legged on the deck in her altered overalls and yellow t-shirt, curtesy of Izo, surrounded by a few of the division commanders. Over the past few days or so, the crewmembers have discovered that Mila has a serve problem with connecting names to faces. Some of the crew brothers (mostly Thatch) saw her disability as some sort of game to pass the time when not working, or a way to get out of working all together.

Today's participates were Kingdew, Vista, Namur, Haruta, and of course, Thatch. Thatch, who was acting as a referee of sorts, held up his arms in the shape of a giant X, "Biriririri, wrong!" As Mila's face fell, Thatch grin grew. For some reason, Thatch took great pleasure in her failure. This was, of course to Izo's displeasure. They were only playing on the deck because Izo was looking for his makeup, which had conveniently went missing this morning. Izo refused to emerge from his room without being properly made up since the disappearing Mila incident and Thatch's incessant teasing.

Mila flopped backwards onto the deck, "I don't like this game!" she pronounced, her tiny features scrunched together tightly, "I always lose."

"Come on Mila~, this is practice. You need to learn everyone's name." Thatch said, smirking wickedly. I'm pretty sure he had an alternative motive.

Off to the side, Kingdew had turned to Namur, grief stricken, "Do I really look like Haruta?" he mumbled to the fishman. Namur just shook his head and patted the eleventh division commander on the back. Poor Kingdew, he had been mistaken for the tiny boy-like twelfth division commander more than once, and was starting to take it personally.

Back towards Mila and Thatch, the argument was still going on, "Noooooooooo, it's boring, and I want to read!" Mila whined.

Thatch flopped backwards next to Mila, giving in to her protests. If we had learned anything from the past few days, it's that it's near impossible to win an argument with the ten year old girl. "You're going to melt your brain with those stupid books." Thatch murmured under his breath.

Mila took this as an okay to excuse herself from the game and darted off to her stack of books on the deck. I've begun to notice that where ever Mila goes, a small stack of large books follow. I've observed stacks beginning to grow in the dining hall, the main deck and strangely enough, two staircases. They were starting to become a danger to the crew, just yesterday, Rakuyo tripped over a bio-engineering manual walking down the stairs with the ink supply for the navigation room. It ended with having to scrub him in bleach and an ink stained stairwell. Bio-engineering was out to get us.

I happened to be standing by her books, so I bet her to the punch, and grab a book from the top and hand it to her. She took the book and carefully examined the cover. After a moment of observation, placed the book back on the stack and grabbed another one. She then proceeded to a corner and curled up.

I picked up the book I had chosen for her, I swore I had saw her starting the same one this morning at breakfast.

"Oi, Mila!" I called over to her,

She reluctantly looked up from her reading material and raised an eyebrow, not gracing me with the dignity of a response.

"Didn't you start this one this morning." I questioned.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, don't you want to finish it?" I inquired further.

She sighed, clearly annoyed at my inquisition, "I already finished it," she said, I swore I heard her mumble 'dingus pineapple' under her breath.

I glanced back down at the book in my hand, it was well over 600 pages.

"That's impossible."

By this point in the conversation, Thatch had made his way over to us, without getting off his back. He had half slide and half crab walked over, a completely unnatural and comical spectacle, which had gone on without a second glance from the crew. To us, it was just another day on living aboard the Moby Dick with Thatch.

Without glancing up from her book, or giving any notice to Thatch, Mila replied, "It's my devil fruit, it allows me to memorize anything in a single glance. Therefore, I can read faster than the average human. My average reading speed is 500 words per second, or 30,000 words per minute."

I scoffed, "You can't possibly remember what you read."

"Every word."

Thatch, who had been silently observing, which was particularly suspicious in itself, suddenly rolled over. "I have a new game!" he declared.

At the sound of a prospective new game, Haruta zoomed over form his spot still by Kingdew. Alone, the tiny man was just about as mischievous as Thatch, but with the two together it spelled impending doom for their brothers. They're historic pranks were still scarred into the minds of their victims. Curiel still wouldn't go into the kitchen alone at night. "Game? I wanna play!" Haruta bounced vigorously as he asked.

Thatch sneered as he grabbed a book from Mila's pile. He randomly opened to a page and scrunched his eyes closed and randomly jabbed a word on the page. He peeked through one eyes to see what word his finger had stabbed.

With a sly smile, his head shoot up and directed its mischievous nature toward the nerd in the corner. "Mila! Page 472, line 28, word 5!"

Mila, without looking up from her current book, said "physician's"

Haruta excitedly looked at the book in Thatch's clutches, he slowly counted out Thatch's directions, mouthing the numbers as he went. "Ohhhhhhh," Haruta looked up from the book, "She's right!" He snatched the book from Thatches hands, "My turn! Hmmmmm," Haruta searched the pages of the book, looking for just the right word, "Ah ha!" and it seemed he found one too, "page 78, line 6, word 3!"

"Lucky"

Haruta smirked at Thatch, "I think we can have some fun with this."

Thatch nodded, but then something occurred to him. I could tell he had an idea because he got this look, his eyebrows got all scrunched up, but his eyes stayed creepily wide, his mouth also did this weird thing pucker thing. That was the face of impending doom, and sadly, we all saw the hideous expression all too often.

"Mila! If you come with me, I'll give you some new books!" Thatch said, keeping his naughty idea to himself.

The only time anyone on the crew saw Mila run was when books were involved, for other daily activities she would just blink or walk normally. It seemed that Mila thought books were worth the extra effort. She zoomed towards Thatch as he walked towards his room below deck.

"Hey!" Haruta went after the duo, "Wait for me! I wanna play more!"

I sighed, the three of them were more trouble than the ship could handle.

Third POV

Later that same day, Mila and Thatch were sneaking around the Moby Dick. In hand, Thatch carried a thick pad of paper and a big black marker. At the moment, they were waiting for Haruta to come back from his recon mission.

Something was up with them, and the whole crew could feel it. Waiting for the shoe to drop, everyone was on their toes. The chefs locked the freezer, Izo hide his makeup, and Curiel refused to come out of his cabin.

Haruta slinked back to their home base, information in hand. They huddled together as they set up their game plan. Now that Haruta had pinpointed all the division commanders' exact locations, they were ready to commence operation snapshot.

At the oddest moments throughout the day, Thatch or Haruta would pop up near a commander, and hold up the thick pad of paper, which was shrinking in size by each commander who spotted them. The twosome wouldn't touch them or put jelly in their pants like other times, which was odd, but they wouldn't move from their position till the ten-year old girl gave them the okay. Which was even weirder, since according Marco, Thatch had bribed Mila to participate with books. Then they would sneak away in the shadows.

The whole thing concerened the crew. Not knowing the trio's plan was pushing everyone over the edge considering the worse. Some theories consisted of radiation from the pad of paper that shriveled their manhood, while others spoke of mind control and mental torture.

There was a gathering in the taking place in the mess hall, the few remaining commanders who hadn't been harassed by the pranksters were gathering to figure out their true agenda, and possibly thwart their plan.

Vista locked the door from the inside of the mess hall, to prevent any unwelcome intrusions, and sat next to Marco, "The coast is clear," he said.

Marco nodded, his hands folded under his chin, "Before this continues, I just want to make sure that we're clear that we will not lock Thatch or Haruta in a closet this time, right?" The few commanders gathered around the long table nodded hesitantly. "Okay, since that has been cleared up, let's get down to business." Marco looked at Speed Jiru, "You're the only one who has yet to escape from their pursuits, is that correct?"

He nodded, "I spotted Mila before Haruta could reach me, it seemed that Thatch was scouting from above and Haruta and Mila moved in on his command."

Marco nodded solemnly, their battle tactics were solid. This was a given since the twelfth division specialized in espionage, and with Haruta providing his extensive knowledge of sneaking and spying they were almost impossible to catch. And Kingdew had tried, he had launched himself at Thatch when he was cornered with the pad of paper, but he missed and hit the wall, causing a large hole to appear in the shape of his head.

"We could ambush them," Fossa suggested, "we could use someone as bait and-"they all fell silent as they heard the lock click open. But when the heads of the men shoot towards the door, they saw nothing. And since they had confiscated all the keys that could unlock the door from the outside and no one was in there except for them, they silently blamed it on nerves, and continued to plot against their common enemy.

Mid-way through plan number six, Kingdew burst though the mess hall doors. Unaware of who the intruder was, the commanders drew their weapons, preparing for battle.

"Where are they?!" Kingdew demanded, "I saw them come this way, are you hiding them?!"

"Wait," Vista said, "you're after Haruta, Thatch, and Mila, right?"

Kingdew nodded, steam about to come out his ears. "Then that means they're close," Jiru commented.

Suddenly it clicked for Marco, they had forgotten all about Mila's devil fruit, no locked door could keep her out, "Men! They're here!"

As soon as Marco said this, Haruta and Thach descended from the rafters like skilled ninjas, each with a pad of paper in hand as their weapon. Mila appeared out of nowhere, eyes flickering from Thatch and Haruta, waiting.

"AH HA!" Kingdew went after Thatch, who was heading towards Marco, "You're mine!"

Chaos soon erupted, all the commanders were going after their pad baring brothers with violent enthusiasm. Quickly, Haruta was pinned under Vista, while Kingdew and Jiru were wrestling with Thatch.

Kingdew was about to smash Thatch's precious hair back into his head when Mila yelled, "Stop, Kingdew!"

Everyone halted, especially Kingdew, "You…. You got my name right." He was in absolute disbelief, shocked that Mila hadn't mistaken him for Haruta or another commander.

Mila nodded, "That's what we've been doing," Haruta said, though it was slightly muffled because he was still under Vista, "Helping Mila learn everyone's names."

Marco examined the trio, and picked up a fallen pad of paper from the floor. He slowly flipped through it. On each sheet was a commander's name written in big letters, he also found his name, though under it was the word pineapple, written in tinier, daintier hand writing. It suddenly hit Marco what they had been doing.

He rubbed his temples, "You've been using the paper and Mila's devil fruit to memorize everyone's name and faces." The idiots nodded, Marco heaved a sigh, "Why didn't you just ask instead of sneaking around and getting everyone suspicious. We all thought you guys were planning world domination or something."

Haruta, Thatch, and Mila glanced at each other, then said "it's not as fun."

**(A/N)** So, I've been a little preoccupied lately. If you follow Percy Jackson and his adventures, you know what I'm talking about. I was reading the last book in the Heroes of Olympus series while writing the beginning of this chapter, and kind of used it as inspiration. In the part where Mila was reciting the words from her book, she was actually reciting Blood of Olympus. And I encourage you to go out and buy the series and read them and find out for yourself. Rick Riordan writes amazing books, I love his twist on Greek mythology and his humor. Oh look, you can see my inner nerd showing, okay I'm done obsessing now. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter, make sure you review, follow and favorite!

LB


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Mila POV

I now knew every inch of the Moby Dick. All of the many levels, half-decks, side-rooms and dead-end halls, plus a little more. During mission snapshot, Thatch and Haruta taught me every hiding spot they knew of on the ship, which happened to be a lot. None of the other crew members knew of them, except dad, so it was great for hide and seek.

Hide and seek was one of my new passions I discovered while onboard the ship, one of the simple joys I missed out on while stuck on Salus with Miss. Lynn. Most days, a good deal of the crew members would play with me too, sometimes whole divisions if it was a slow day. For being burly pirates, my crew brothers loved playing games. Today was different though, absolutely everyone was busy. I guess it was raiding season or something, because everyone was out on some mission. Barely any skiffs remained. And with everyone gone, there were less people to man the ship, which I had now learned takes a lot of people to keep going.

The only person I knew that never went anywhere was dad. Being the captain, I would think he would be gone all the time, doing captain stuff, but it turns out he stays on the Moby Dick most of the time.

"I'm booooooooooooooored!" I proclaimed loudly at dad's feet, where I was sprawled out in the midday sun.

"Gurararara, and how I am I supposed to fix that?" Dad laughed.

"Get a library," I mumbled under my breath. The one thing the Moby Dick didn't have was a library, which had a big effect on me since I had finished all the books the crew already had on board, and was now out of reading material. Dad chuckled quietly as I absently traced the pattern of the wooden planks of the deck. "Where is everyone, anyway?"

"Working,"

I glanced up at him through my bangs suspiciously, "What kind of work?"

"Mostly managing my territories, securing supplies, some are scouting other Emperors. I believe Haruta is currently slaking a certain Shichibukai." Dad replied nonchalantly.

I pushed my bangs out of the way to get a better view of him, "Do you think I could work too?" That would surly solve my boredom.

Dad considered this, then replied, "You couldn't go out alone, considering you've never seen the Grand Line and don't know how to fight yet." I frowned, but he continued, "You might to be able help in the navigation room. Your knowledge might come in handy when maneuvering the unpredictable seas of the Grand Line."

I raised an eyebrow, "Is the Grand Line really that dangerous?" I knew it held a various amount of risks from the information in my files, but these were the Whitebeard Pirates, one of the strongest crew in the world, I doubt that they really needed my help in navigation. It was more likely that Dad was just giving me busy work to get me out of his hair, or lack of hair.

"Gurarara, yes my dear, it's the most dangerous place in the world."

"Hmmmmm," I frowned, it sounds entertaining, that's for sure, "Is it true that there's an island under water?"

Dad smiled, "Yes, Fishman Island happens to be one of my territories."

My eyes twinkled, "Can we go there next?" I asked, completely mystified by the idea of being underwater and not drowning. I've always had a love/hate relationship with water. Being a devil fruit and all, I couldn't go swimming without drowning, but I loved the sensation of taking a bath and having the water surrounding me. If I had to pick, I would choose drowning as my way to die, it seemed eternally peaceful.

Dad made a face, a face that reminded me of Thatch's idea face, "If you learn to navigate, and guide us there by yourself, then yes."

I smiled, liking the challenge, "It's a deal." There was no way I could lose, when it comes to knowledge, there was no one above me.

Third POV

(1 week later)

Thatch had just emerged from below deck after securing his skiff. He had been gone for almost two weeks, and was seeking the company of a certain stormy haired child.

"Oi!" Thatch waved down the passing 15th division commander, Fossa, "Where's Mila, I picked her up something." He hefted his bag filled with some random books he had found while working.

Fossa sighed heavily, "Just put them with the others." He jerked his head towards a pile a growing books.

"Where's the chicky?" Something had to be physically holding the young girl back to keep her from a stack of unread books.

Fossa frowned, "She's learning how to navigate, and hasn't left the navigation room for a week. She won't leave for food or sleep. They had to put a cot in there so she didn't sleep on the floor." He shook his head, "Even when we told her about her new books, she still wouldn't come out. It's a very concerning situation."

As Fossa went back to work, Thatch scratched his goatee. Fossa was right, this was a very concerning situation. And after little thought, Thatch had now decided to make it his personal job to rectify it.

Meanwhile in the navigation room Mila was hunched over a table she had claimed for her own. It was located in the back corner, out of the way of the members of the 7th division member, who were in charge of navigating the ginormous ship. Next to her table was a small cot, perfect for a girl her size, and a cold plate of food she had ignored when it was placed in front of her an hour ago.

Sprawled across her desk were a precarious stack of books, all of which concerned any and all aspects of navigation. In front of her at that particular moment was the 163rd map she had mesmerized. She had begun in the in the east blue, then traveled to the west blue, and was now currently working on the south blue.

Most would say what she was doing was pointless. She didn't need to know the geography of the rest of the oceans just to find her way to Fishman Island. Which she had recently learned was in the first half of the grand line, because there was apparently more than one part of the grand line. But Mila believed if you were going to learn one thing, you might as well learn everything else. That belief had set her on a mad reading spree of the 7th division's collection.

According to their documents, there was more to navigation than maps, apparently you also had to take in weather and wind conditions as well. After learning that snippet of knowledge, Mila put herself on a strict regimen for her crash course in navigation. For every map she memorized, she read two books on weather.

At the rate she was going, she would reach her goal of memorizing all the world's oceans and mastering navigation in 6 more days and 20 hours and 38 minutes, not allotting any time for sleep or food. Or Thatch.

Thatch, who believed any sort of knowledge or learning, or anything that required brain activity, was evil, had somehow found his way into the navigation room. Where the most brain activity was used, or as he liked to say, "Where the nerds live". This came as a shock to everyone working that day, Thatch would only ever came this close to mock them or throw grapes at them. This time he came empty handed, thankfully, and kept his mouth shut.

He slowly made his way to the back of the room, where Mila had set up camp, a big bag in hand. "Hey Chicky, whathcha up to?" Thatch asked with innocent curiosity.

"Navigation" was her only monotone reply.

"Hmmmm," Thatch leaned back on his heels, "that sounds pretty dull to me."

"That's because you lack the attention span to learn,"

Thatch snorted, "That's ridiculous, I have a great attention span,"

"When was the last time you read a book," Thatch was about to protest that he had started a few, but Mila continued "and finished it." Which shut him up.

An idea arose in Thatch's mentally unstable, mischievous mind. He could feel his face start to morph as he embraced his brilliant revelation. "I have a deal for you,"

Mila sighed, and finally looked up from her pile of maps. "I already have a deal with dad at the moment, and right now you're putting me behind track, so if you would kindly leave me alone."

"Well," Thatch ignored Mila's request, "this deal is linked to Pops deal, so it won't interfere." She raised a curious eyebrow, saying she was listening. "If I can finish one of these books," he pulled a book from his bag, "before you can master navigating, you have to leave this goddamn nerd hole, and sleep and eat like a normal person."

Mila smirked, either Thatch underestimated her ability, or he overestimated his reading speed, but either way, he was going to lose, "On one condition, if I win you have to dye your hair pink."

Thatch nodded, smiling, he had taught her well, "Deal."

Thatch had picked one of the books the other crewmember had brought for Mila, but she had neglected. It was a thick mystery novel about a writer shadowing a homicide detective for research for a book. Thatch had actually chosen the book for the creepy cover though.

The whole ship had figured out about the bet after two days of strange behavior of both Mila and Thatch.

First of all, Thatch had a book, which was as rare as a legal pirate. What was even weirder was that he was reading it. Everywhere he went he would be stuck in the book, eating, sitting and even walking. Which was particularly dangerous since they lived on a ship in the middle of the ocean. After two days, he was almost a fourth of the way through the book, even after reading constantly.

Mila, on the other hand was going strong, well figuratively. She had been following her schedule to the tee, a little delayed since her conversation with Thatch, but still would be finished on time. She hadn't slept or eaten for 48 hours straight. She was getting increasingly tried, having trouble keeping her eyes open, her eyelids getting too heavy for her to keep open. Weakness was threatening to take over. The crew in the navigation room could hear her growling stomach every so often.

With the conditions of the two contenders taken into account, the crew had started taking bets on them. Most members were beating on Mila for the win, Marco had already bought pink hair dye for Thatch. Both were fully aware of the bets, but neither were effected, not visibly at least.

Five days after the creation of the bet, Namur found Thatch rummaging through the pile of books brought back to the ship for Mila.

"What are you doing?"

Thatch glanced up, dark bags hung underneath his bloodshot eyes, "I have to find it," he mumbled like a deranged person, "I have to know,"

"Thatch," Namur asked softly, like he was talking to a cornered animal, and didn't want to spook him, "are you okay?"

Thatch held up the book he had been reading for the past four days, the bubblegum wrapper bookmark was nowhere to be seen, "How can it be 'to be continued', I have to know,"

Namur sighed with relief, he had thought the few screws Thatch actually had, had finally come loose. He smiled, that also meant the bet was over, Thatch had finished his book, and Namur had won part of the bet.

"Someone go tell Mila she lost!" Namur yelled, "And someone find Thatch his book before he goes crazy."

**(A/N) **I totally didn't finish the last half of this chapter with a stuffed cow on my head. Nor did I forget about it till I got up because I was too lazy to take it off after my sister placed it there. Did anyone notice the Castle reference? Because I was totally not watching that with a cow on my head while writing this. If I don't get another chapter out before then, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Go visit my DeviantArt page on Halloween to see a special Mila pic, my iD is lizzbizz357.

Follow, Favorite, and review!

LB


	9. Bonus Chapter

**(A/N) **Happy Halloween! This is a short, kind of spooky chapter about a why Curiel doesn't go into the kitchen at night anymore. This takes place before Mila joins the crew.

Bonus Chapter

Curiel POV

Food, need food. I hadn't eaten since morning, and missed both lunch and dinner due to a minor mishap.

Somehow, more than 100 bunnies had made their home on the Moby Dick, and it was Marco and I's job to catch them. Well, we did get the better end of the deal, since the rest of the commanders had to pick up the mess the bunnies had left. How we division commanders got stuck with that kind of job is beyond me.

And that's the story of how I ended up in the kitchen past midnight starving, and alone. Marco had been too exhausted after our bunny escapade to do anything other than fall into bed. I, on the other hand, needed food.

Most everyone was in bed or still cleaning up bunny shit, the grueling chase had discouraged everyone from a late night of partying.

Trying to be as considerate as possible, I carefully treaded through the dining hall to the kitchen in the back. I slowly cracked the door open, wincing as the hinges obnoxiously moaned in protest as opened the door further open. I started to blindly pat the wall beside the door, seeking out the light switch. I found the cool plastic and flipped the switch up and down, waiting for the dull light to illuminate the room. It never came. I cursed the damned bunnies, they had chewed threw most of the wiring of the ship, but I had ignorantly hoped they had missed the kitchen's circuit.

I shuffled sightlessly through the kitchen, waving my arms in front of myself. Getting stabbed in the gut with a kitchen knife was probably the only thing that could have made the day any worse, but a stubbed toe would suck too. Cautiously, I gripped the side of a counter, one that I was almost certain lead to the fridge. I used it as a guide as I walked toward the fridge. My finger brushed something that had been left on the counter. I instantly jerked back, a cool wetness soaking into my finger. I rubbed my finger together, trying to identify the bizarre substance the kitchen staff had left out. The gritty texture of the material sent goose bumps running up along my arm. I felt my arm hair push against the fabric of my shirt. Whatever the stuff was, it didn't belong in the kitchen.

I wiped my finger on my pants repeatedly, trying to remove the ick coating the tips of my fingers, and continued on. This minor setback would not prevent me from my ultimate goal, food. This time when choosing my path, I opted out of holding onto the counter.

I shuffled throughout the rest of my journey, taking it slow and steady. My painfully long excursion had ended in happiness, as my hand met the chill metal of the handle of then industrial size refrigerator. The resounding 'click!' of the handle resounded throughout the rest of the room, echoing against the hard metal walls. I pulled the heavy door towards me, the bottom of the dense metal door shrieked as it met with resistance with the tiled floor. I pushed through the god awful noise to reach my goal, the deep, back right of the walk-in fridge, where the cooks kept the good jerky.

I elected the same method I had used to reach my destination, a mixture of shuffling and hand waving to receive my jerky.

It seemed darker in the fridge, now I couldn't even see the outline of my hand. Nor could I see the metal shelf my hand had rammed into.

"Shit!" I shook my hand, as if I could shake the pain out.

Suddenly my hand stopped shaking, but not of on my own will. An emotionless, icy appendage latched itself onto my wrist. Thin fingers encircled around it, I could fell its grip over my pulse, which was quickening at an alarming pace.

My voice cracked as I tried to release the scream that was bubbling up in my chest. Fear gripped my heart like a vise, it tightened as the hand tightened around my wrist as well. I attempted to wrench myself form its grasp, but failed. I was stuck in its shrinking grasp. I lashed out towards the hand, aiming past the hand to try and attack the being holding me. My fist landed against a hard chest. The thing grunted and loosened its grip on me, and I took the opportunity and ran.

Third POV

Curiel scurried out of the kitchen, banging into tables and counters, utensils rattling.

As the dining hall door thumped closed, Thatch emerged from the fridge while Haruta reconnected the circuit for the kitchen lights. Thatch swiped a hand through his hair, leaving white streaks from the gritty paint covering his hand, "That wasn't Marco, was it?"

Haruta frowned, "No, I don't think was." He sighed, "Well shit, now we have to get more bunnies."

**(A/N) **Yeah, that was super short, but it was just a bonus chapter, so yeah. It was just a happy little Halloween thing. I don't write horror or scary things, or even remotely creepy stuff, so sorry if it didn't reach your standard of 'spooky'. I wrote this off something I had mentioned in chapter 7 I think. Curiel was still traumatized by a prank Thatch and Haruta had pulled, and now he wouldn't go into the kitchen at night. I had no idea what I was writing at the time, it was just a random blurb that sounded funny in my head, but the idea turned out to be a good bonus. I find it especially funny that Curiel wasn't their intended target. Anyways, have a fun AND safe Halloween, make sure check out my DeviantArt page, lizzbizz357, to see Mila's Halloween costume.

LB


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Mila POV

I had finally completed my studies in navigation. After being monitored by a responsible adult (aka not Thatch) and being forced to eat and sleep, I finished my studies three days after my deadline. Stupid Thatch, he had to go and actually have a brain for once, and read a book. Even though I'd never admit it, if Thatch hadn't won, I'd probably would've passed out that day.

Note to self, never go without food or sleep for more than twenty four hours.

Now I only had to steer a giant whale boat to an island underwater, simple enough. Actually, it was that simple. A few days before, I had given dad my directions to enter the fastest trail of islands that lead to Fishman Island. Now I only had to give my input at a few select islands and sit back and relax, enjoying the smooth sailing.

Well, that had been my original plan until Izo popped my bubble of happiness.

"Oh come on Mila," Izo pleaded with me, "you need something other than those dingy overalls, which you really need to wash."

I sighed, this had been a reoccurring augment between us since the ship had entered the first half of the grand line. "I like my overalls. And Thatch doesn't wash his clothes." I countered.

"Thatch is a terrible example all around." I had to agree, but I refused to take off my overalls. They were officially me new favorite piece of clothing.

"Well, I still have a ton of books left to read." I started, "Everyone went out of their way to get me the books, and it would be inconsiderate not read then right away."

Izo put her hands on her hips and frowned, "Well if you really thought that, you wouldn't have holed yourself up in the navigation room."

I refused to be beaten in this argument, "It would be such a hassle to go buy clothes on an island anyway, we should stay on course and get to Fishman Island as soon as possible. We can buy clothes there." And once we got there, I would suspiciously disappear.

Izo snorted, "Do you think I'm dense?" Kind of, "We're starting to catch onto your tricks Mila. We are stopping at the next island and getting you new clothes." I was about to rebuff my argument, but she cut me off, "I don't care if I have to cuff you and drag you off this ship. You are coming whether you like it or not." Without another word, Izo stomped off.

I smirked a planning forming, well if we never stopped at another island, there was no way we could go shopping. It was a good thing I was navigating the ship at the moment.

I blinked from my comfy spot on the deck to on top of Rakuyo's, commander of the seventh division, desk. The seventh division was in command of navigation, so I've been spending quite a lot of time with them, especially Rakuyo. He was by far my favorite. Other than being the most intelligent, he also had a flail that had eaten a devil fruit and now acts like a dog, who was very fun to play with.

He has grown used to my spontaneous appearances, like most of the crew, so he wasn't too surprised when I landed on his paper work.

"Heeeeeeey, Rakuyo," I said sweetly, leaning back on my hands and swinging my feet over the edge of his desk.

He cracked a smile, "Hello little Mila."

"So," I started, preparing my special technique, "I was wondering when we were landing at the next island?"

"Well," he started to pull a paper from under my bottom, I leaned to one side to give him more room. He pulled the paper out and smoothed it as he skimmed its content, "according to this, we will reach it within the hour."

"WHAT!?' I grabbed the paper from his hands, and sure enough, that was what the time table I had written said. "Can't we change course?"

"No, we need to refuel on supplies," he raised an eyebrow, slowly realizing I had an alternative motive for visiting him, "Why?"

I heaved a sigh, that nasty Izo had won, "No reason." I slipped off his desk, I needed to think of an escape plan for when we reached the island.

Izo POV

I hummed happily as I packed my tiny bag, stuffing it full of cash, all of which I planned to spend. Next to me, Thatch plopped ungracefully next to me on one of the dining hall benches.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" He asked as he snatched a carrot from Namur's plate, who sat across the table from us. He took a chop out of it, but was apparently expecting something else, because right after that, he spat it back out onto the floor. Both Namur and I glared at him.

"If you have to know, Mila and I are going shopping once we dock."

He snorted, "You really think chicky is going to willingly go shopping with you?"

I tilted my chin up, avoiding his gaze, "Well, no. I'm forcing her."

Thatch blurted out hysterical laughter. Namur shook his head, "You know, you could probably could get her to go another way,"

I studied Namur, the fishman had always been goof at negotiation and coming up with compromises, "How so?"

"What are the two things she always wants," he paused for effect, "books and freedom."

I nodded as I smiled, a plan springing to life in my head. I lifted myself up from the table, ready to go seek out Mila, "Thank you for the advice Namur," he nodded in acknowledgement. I swung my legs over the bench. Once I had straightened my kimono, I grabbed my bag and swung it passionately at the back of Thatch's head. His head dove straight into the wooden table, shaking Namur's plate. Namur chuckled softly as I walked away from Thatches indecent curses.

Third POV

Mila was digging under her bed, desperately searching for a book she had placed under there for safe keeping. Her room had been a previous storage room, since her arrival was a bit spontaneous. And since she was a girl, she wasn't allowed to sleep in the barracks with the division members. The only good thing about her improvised room was that the walls were lined with shelves, perfect for her growing collection of books.

She heard her door creak open, but was too far underneath her bed to see their face, but she did she the sandal clad feet. She sighed, had Izo come to drag her into hell already.

"Mila?"

Mila flopped onto her stomach, giving up on the book, and life. "Whaaaaaaaat?" she whined.

"After clothes shopping, would you want to go out alone and look for some new books?" Izo proposed.

Mila banged her head as she tried to sit up, excited at the new opportunity. Hurriedly, she shimmied backwards from out of under the bed. As soon as she was free, she sat up to face Izo. "Really? I can go alone and everything?" she asked.

Izo smiled, "Yes, I'll even give you money."

Mila shot up, "Then what are we doing here? Let's get going!"

Mila skipped happily down the city street as Izo followed a ways back, keeping a close eye on the tiny girl. His plan had worked, Mila had been more than happy to go shopping after being offered books.

Izo stopped in front of a colorfully decorated boutique, deciding this was going to be their first stop. "Mila!" he called over to the girl. She looked back at Izo, smiling. She soon noticed the store he stood in front of though. She slowly walked back to where Izo stood, shaking her head.

"Does it have to be this one?" She asked once she reached him. "It looks so girly." Mila cringed.

Izo nodded, "Yes, this looks like it has the best quality of clothing." When he still saw her hesitation, he pressed, "Come on,"

Mila grudgingly followed him into the well-lit, obnoxious clothing store. A tiny bell cheerfully rang as they entered, almost mocking Mila's suddenly gloomy disposition. A young, overly made-up attendant greeted the duo. "How may I help you two?" she said sweetly. It made Mila want to gag.

Izo returned an equally sweet smile, "Well, we're looking for clothes for this lovely girl today," Izo put a hand on Mila's shoulder.

The attendant squatted down to get eye level with Mila, "Oh, lovey." She cooed, "You're very pretty little girl."

In response to this, Mila screwed her face into an ugly scowl. The attendant jerked back and grimaced. Izo scowled at her behavior and not so lightly thumped the back of Mila's head, "Mila," he hissed, "that's not very nice."

She puffed out my checks in agitation, "I'm sorry." She grumbled reluctantly.

The woman straightened herself and her skirt, "it's okay," she gave a stiff, clearly fake smile. It was so not okay. "Would you mind it if I took you're measurements?" Mila was about to snap at the attendant, when she caught a shriveling look from Izo.

"No," she mumbled.

The attendant nodded, clearly as thrilled as Mila was at the situation. "If you'll come with me to the dressing room," the lady lead Mila to the dressing room in the back of the store as Izo milled around a very pink, ruffle-esque section of the store.

By the time Mila emerged with the attendant in toe, Izo had an armful of various clothing items already picked out. He shoved the pile into Mila's tiny arms, "Go try these on, I'll hand you more in a bit."

Mila tried to peek over the pile to steer herself to back to the dressing room, but her efforts ended in vain when she face planted into a rack of dresses. The whole thing toppled over, spilling everything onto the floor. The attendant gasped as she watched the whole scene unfold, unable to do a thing as her merchandise was scattered on the floor.

Izo quickly placed his hands on Mila's back and steered her back toward the dressing room. "We're very sorry," Izo apologized as she hurried Mila away. The attendant just squeaked, not able to vocalize her feelings.

As soon as they were in the safety of the rear of the store, Izo let out her breathe, which she had been apparently holding in.

Before he could yell at her, Mila started to defend her own case, "It's not my fault, I couldn't see anything!" she said, "it's her fault for having such a bad floor plan."

Izo shook her head, "Try these on,"

He pushed her into a single dressing room and closed the door. Mila heard his retreating steps as he went to help the flustered attendant. Mila glared at the pile of clothing Izo had picked out for her. Nothing looked like something Mila would pick out for herself. So nothing was a pair of overalls. To start with, Mila picked the only none pink thing. A simple yell dress with white polka dots, all secured with a zipper on the back. She sadly shed her overalls and yellow t-shirt and carefully folded them and placed them on a chair in the corner. She slipped the dress over on, but struggled with zipping up her back.

"Onee-san!" Mila yelled, but when there was no reply, she tried again, "Izo?"

Soon after there was a reply, "What is it Mila?"

"I can't zip myself up." She admitted, a little ashamed of herself.

"I'm coming," he said, but was stopped.

The attendant had stopped Izo half way to the dressing room where Mila was struggling. "I'm sorry, you can't go in there." She said.

"Excuse me?" Mila could hear Izo's taken aback voice.

"Men are not allowed in the women's dressing room." Mila heard the attendant reply.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Izo didn't sound offended to Mila. Why wouldn't she be offended, Mila thought, I would be extremely offended if someone mistaken me for a man. Something then hit Mila, what if it wasn't a mistake.

Mila burst from her dressing room, the yellow dress only half on. "Izo! Are you a man?"

Izo looked extremely taken back by the question and her current attire, but nodded, "Yes, I am."

Mila stood there stunned, jaw unhinged and hanging open. She never actually expected him to agree with her. Now Mila saw him in a whole new light. He was longer an old-fashioned dressed women, but an old-fashioned cross dresser. He was no longer Onee-san, but now an Onii-san. She suddenly felt incredibly stupid, a feeling she had ever rarely felt.

"Why did you never tell me!?" she yelled, to cover up her embarrassment from mistaking him for a women, she pretended to be angry at him when she was more angry at herself.

Izo shrugged his now very manly looking shoulders, "I never thought of it as an important difference. Does it matter if I am a woman or man?"

He had a good point. Izo being a man wouldn't change the fact that he would always have a mother hen personality, or that he was one of the first people on the Moby Dick to become her friend. So what if her sister became a brother, she already had plenty of them, why not add another.

I shook my head, "No, it doesn't matter, sorry if I made too big of a deal of it."

Izo tittered at her behavior, "Its fine dear, now turn around so I can zip that dress. It's basically falling off."

Mila obeyed Izo, and turned around to let him zip her up. When turned around, Mila spotted the attendant, who was standing in a state of complete exhaustion. Apparently their shopping experience was a little too much for this ordinary civilian.

Only after Izo had bought a great deal of clothes from the shopping clerk they had traumatized, did he give Mila the okay to go off alone, but not without some rules.

"First of all" started Izo, "you have to be back at the ship by four, if you're not, Pops will be mad, and we don't want a repeat of what happened before." No they did not. If Whitebeard was angry, the whole ship would suffer, maybe even the island too. Mila nodded in agreement, and Izo continued, "Next, no talking to strangers. Never follow a man with candy. Don't help people look for a lost puppy either. And finally, if anyone gives you trouble," the second part pained Izo to say, but he continued, "beat the living shit out of them." Mila giggled, hearing Izo swear was a rare occurrence. He glared at the giggling girl, who was all too happy to be going out alone. "Do you understand?"

Mila suppressed her giggles and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I got it Onii-san." She said.

Izo nodded, straightening Mila's new yellow and polka dot dress, which he had insisted on her wearing. "Don't spend your all money in one place too. Don't get so many books you can't carry them back to the ship either oaky?"

Mila offered a reassuring smile, "I'll be fine, I won't do anything stupid, I promise."

He heaved a heavy sigh, "Okay, as long as you promise,"

"And I do," I assured him.

"Then you better get going," Mila smiled and started to dart away, but stopped to turn back and give Izo a hug.

"Thank you for taking me shopping today," she said, and gave him a tight squeeze, which Izo returned.

"You're welcome sweetie, now go and have fun." He gave her a tiny push forward, encouraging her to go on ahead. Mila nodded, and set off while waving back at Izo as she went. Izo shook his head, "My baby's growing up."

It was time for Mila to set off on her first adventure alone. What did this strange city have in store for her?

**(A/N)** YEA, IZO! I've felt like I've neglected him for the last few chapters, and decided to spread some Izo love. Mila also figured out Izo was actually a he instead of she, FINALLY. It's such a pain to write about Izo in third person because when I first saw him in the anime, I thought he was a girl too. So I always type 'she' instead of 'he'. I was embarrassed when a friend corrected me on his gender though. I mean really, he's a cross dresser, there are bound to be some mistakes. The Moby Dick is finally on its way to Fishman Island! I have a lot planned for them there, because Fishman Island is going to turn out to be an important part of Mila's life. That's all I'm going to say on the subject, you'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens. Hope you all had a great Halloween!

LB


	11. Chapter 10

**(A/N)** So my last few chapters have been kinda of filler-esque, so I was thinking maybe I should add a conflict or something. I was already half-way through with writing this chapter when I realized this, so I twisted this into a bigger deal then it actually was going to be. This chapter was originally going to be about Mila and her lack of a biological family and such, but that quickly changed. Then the whole thing started to unfold within my head and BOOM I have like four chapters planned out! So enjoy Mila and her new life altering experience!

LB

Chapter 10

Mila POV

I had never been in such a big city before, and I had to admit, without Izo by my side, it was a little overwhelming. All the stores were screaming for me to go and inside. Some people were actually screaming for me to come inside their shop. I had to restrain myself though. Like Onii-san said, I couldn't spend all my money in one place. It was sensible advice till I stumbled upon Sweet Tooth Candy Store. While on Salus, I had never been allowed any sweets, so when I had the opportunity to enter a real candy store, how could I resist.

Sweet Tooth Candy Store was a warm welcoming place, the walls painted a bubblegum pink, random colors splattered all over the place. It was a good kind of colorful though, not a gaudy kind like the boutique I had just visited with Onii-san. In the back of the store, an employee was rolling out toffee, an extremely interesting process which I observed for almost a half an hour. Up the side of both walls were buckets and buckets of different kinds of candy. A completely overwhelming sight. Kids around my own age were shoving random kinds of candy in a plastic bag, not looking at the kind or flavor, and then zipping over to a scale to weigh their individual bag. I soon learned from a helpful clerk that I could fill a bag full of a pound of any candy and only pay 50 berris for it. I decided to try it, and took a tiny bag from the nice lady, and began to fill it.

I didn't use the same approach as the other kids though, I was much too educated to use their willy nilly method of picking my precious candy, so I decided to go to every bucket and read each description carefully before deciding what I wanted. It turned out that I was extremely picky when it came to candy. I had no previous experience with it, so I hadn't known I wouldn't like so much of it. But I did figure out that I absolutely adored lollipops. They were a gift given from god. After this revelation, I filled my bag up with a pound of different kinds of lollipops. Of course they were of different brands and flavors. I would perform an evaluation on both brand and flavor once I returned to the ship.

I anxiously waited in the line for the checkout, practically buzzing with excitement. I could almost taste the lollipops through the bags my mouth was watering so much.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who was who anxious to receive their candy. Parents and children zoomed through the line, limiting small talk to allow their children to collect their goodies, and to get them to shut up.

"Hello, how are you today sweetie?" the shop clerk asked me once I reached the front of the line. She was around the ages of 16 or 17, probably working here as a part-time job. She seemed to be enjoying herself though, because I had surveyed her talking animatedly with each costumer. She was extremely pretty too, golden blonde hair shaped into a friendly bob, big smiling brown eyes that complemented her pink pin striped uniform well.

"I'm doing well, and how are you?" I asked, remembering my manners.

She giggled, "I'm good, you're a very polite little girl" she took my bag of lollipops and started weigh it.

"Thank you, I was told to always be polite." It was that or I would get a whack on the head from Onii-san.

The clerk started to tap numbers into the cash register as she asked, "That's good, and did you parents teach you that? That would be 50 berris."

I shook my head as reached for my money. "No, my Onii-san taught me."

She gave another twinkling laugh, "That's better than my Onii-san, he used to pull my hair when I was little," she puffed her bob haircut, "so now I always cut my hair out of habit."

I laughed along with her as she took my money and handed me my bag in return. "Thank you very much" I said.

She leaned over the counter to get closer to me, her golden yellow bob jiggled up and down as she moved forward, "Do me a favor and thank your Onii-san for being such a good older brother for me, will ya?" she bobbed her head to the side with the last word.

I nodded, grinning I said, "I will"

She winked at me and continued onto the next costumer. I excited the store, smiling. Such a charismatic and sweet women like her belonged in a candy store.

Back on the street, bag in hand and lollipop under my tongue, I was determined to find a book store. The task proved more difficult than expected since Onii-san said no talking to strangers. So directionless and alone, I wandered the streets.

I had stopped in front of a pet store to coo over some adorable puppies when I heard, grunts and shouts from the alley next door. I looked around at the crowd to see if anyone else had noticed or if I was just going crazy. I could tell they heard it since they're faces were twisted in disgust and fear. No one made a move to go and investigate the sounds though. I peeked around the corner, my curiosity growing. What had the city goers so scared? The alley was dark and reminded me on the one Lynn's shop had once been in. I could barely make out five figures, one of which was on the ground. I looked around again. People would gaze into the alley then quickly jerk their head to the other side, pretending not to notice the abuse going on.

I popped the lollipop from my mouth and twirled it in between my lips, thinking. When I looked at the situation from a logical point of view, I see that it's completely unthinkable for a ten year old girl to go up against four men in their early twenties, at least according to their body shapes and vocal patterns. But then I stopped listening to reason, something Thatch always recommended. I was a pirate who belonged to one of the four emperor's crew, I shouldn't have to look away when I don't like something. I now had the power to stand up for myself, and for others who couldn't.

I repositioned my lollipop firmly against the inside of my check and my teeth and departed down the alley. As I approached the men, I could see my assumption was right, they were all in their early twenties, including the man curled up in a ball on the ground. They all wore the same signature dark. Blood flowed from a cut in his forehead and a broken nose. The four men were taking turns kicking the man, laughing as they did so.

I could smell the metallic stench of blood from where I stood a few feet away. They didn't take any notice to me till I made a loud 'pop' with my lollipop.

"Oh look what wandered down here boys" one said. The man on the ground winced as he looked up at me, curious on what had interrupted his beating. Golden blonde hair matted with blood. "a little mouse."

One cocked his head to the side, studying me, "She's a cute little mouse, that's for sure." I cringed as he gave me a toothy grin, one that resembled that of a hyena.

"I'm not a mouse." I proclaimed.

"Really?" hyena face said, "Then what are you?" his cronies chortled along with him.

I raised my chin proudly, "A pirate." I proclaimed.

One of them snorted, "And I'm a unicorn." He mocked, laughing.

Hyena face shushed him, "Kid, this isn't some place to be joking around at, I'll give you one chance to leave, and we'll pretend nothing ever happened."

I looked at the blonde man on the ground again, his eyes wide and pleading. If they were pleading for me to leave or for me to help, I couldn't tell. But the familiar golden hair told me to stay. "I'm not planning on leaving till you let him go." I declared.

"Do you know who you're messing with kid?" the unicorn said, I returned his question with a blank stare. I honestly didn't give two shits about that who they were, but he told me anyways. "We're the Two Stars, the most biggest and baddest gang in the whole fucking city."

I inwardly winced at his atrocious grammar, and countered his pathetic statement with one on my own, "I'm a part of the Whitebeard Pirates."

The all cackled at my unbelievable statement, "Really?" the first one said, "Then where's your mark?" I didn't reply. I had no tattoo like the other crew members, no way to show them I wasn't lying. "Everyone knows all the Whitebeards have some ink," he continued, "so where's your's little pirate."

"I don't have any" I mumbled. I had noticed the dad's mark on every member of the crew, but I had never thought it was a requirement, I assumed it was more of a loyalty pledge. Showing that they would always follow their father.

"No, I think you do," unicorn said, "But you're just hiding it from us. I think we need to search her."

They started approach me, inching away from their victim on the ground. As soon as they were so far in front of him they couldn't see him behind them, I quickly blinked to him and whispered in his ear, "run". I would save him and show these men what a pirate really was.

He looked up at me shocked. Before he had a chance to question me or protest, I blinked. I blinked above unicorns head, letting gravity take its toll on him as my weight crashed into him. He crumpled like a rag doll.

"Oi, watch it! She's a devil fruit user." One warned the others.

Not that it would save them though.

Quickly appearing to the side, I let one charge me, not moving till the last second, then blinking out of the way just in time. He rammed face first into the unforgiving brick wall.

I ran to the other side of the alley and garbed one of the many discarded trash cans and jammed it into the hyena face's crotch as he charged me. He didn't fall as easily as the last one did though, he only faltered a little as he dove towards me. I swiftly dodged him by stepping to the side. By stepping to the side, I stepped into the reach of the first one's grasp. His thick hands encircled my thin arms, locking me in his grasp. I tried to blink out of his grasp out of pure fear, but failed. I had never been able to blink while being held by another person. It was a crippling effect to my power.

Hyena face approached me as I struggled against the man's grasp. He held his crothch in pain, which brought me more than a little satisfaction. "Look what you've gone and done," he shook his head, "now what are we going to do with you."

I frantically looked over to where the blonde had been, now there was only a pool of blood. I sighed, he had gotten away. My moment of relief was ended by a fist colliding with my face. I've never experienced that much pain before, and it was excoriating. Hyena face pulled his fist back again readying for another punch. "This is what you get for messing with the Two Stars." Suddenly fear gripped my chest and I lashed out with my legs, out all the power I had into trying to stop him. I didn't think I could stand another punch. His arm was let loose and rammed into my gut. I chocked on my own breathe as I tried to stay conscious. Dots filled my vision as I gasped for air.

They chuckled at my lack of pain tolerance, "That's not even the worse you'll get." I heard someone say. "Hey, Nic, you got a lighter?" My vision had finally cleared enough for me to watch as Hyena face heated up a ring with a raised imprint of a star on it. I struggled with the little strength I had left, I could tell where this was going. "Hold her still" he hissed. He jerked my right arm away from my capture and turned it so he had access to the sensitive inside of my elbow. "Here little pirate, I'll give you a mark,"

The last thing I remember was the feeling of the ring burning its way through my flesh, the pain pushing me over the edge and into blackness.

I woke up alone, broken and bruised. I was still in the same alley, slumped against the wall in my own pool of blood flowing from my arm. I tried to push myself up, but cried out in pain as my right arm crumpled under me. Trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill, I pulled my right arm into my lap, cradling it against my chest. I couldn't breathe. My arm had been marked, that's for sure. Burned horizontally on the inside of my right arm were two stars. The burn was so deep I could have stuck my finger in it. I tried not to cry, pirates didn't cry. I realized then though, I was no pirate. I was a failure and a child. I gave into the retching feeling in my throat and let loose the wave of tears I was holding back.

I sat there crying for a long while.

**(A/N)** So, like wow. That was intense right? Well hopefully it was. HOLY CRAP, did anyone else realize this is chapter ten? Well, that's not including the bonus chapter. YEA! I would love some feedback from you helpful, beautiful people about how I'm doing so far. Not that I plan on stopping anytime soon, but your opinions really matter to me. Favorite, follow and review please!

LB


	12. Chapter 11

**(A/N) **Hello to the few faithful followers of Mila and her adventures, and you random ass people who saw this and were like, hey this doesn't sound like complete crap! I would like to take a moment of your precious time and give a shout out to MysticWaterWolf, a great person, or alien, vampire, zombie creature, I'm not entirely sure, who also happens to be a great writer! Go check them out, it will defiantly be worth your time, after you read this off course though. And now back to your regular-ish scheduled chapter.

LB

Chapter 11

Third POV

(On board the Moby Dick)

Izo nervously thumped his fingers against the table set out on the deck. The crew decided to take advantage of the good weather of the summer island and bask in the sun while playing card. Izo though, who was never one for gambling, was an observer, a demanding, whiny one at that too.

"Marco, what time is it?" he asked, keeping a steady beat with his finger.

Marco sighed and laid his cards face down on the table and looked at his watch, "It is 3:37, three minutes since you last asked in case you were wondering."

Izo choose to ignore his last bit of sarcasm, just like he had since joining the crew, and continued to fret, "It been over three hours, what could she be doing?"

"Probably what you told her to do," Thatch commented, staring intently at his cards, determined not to lose like the hand before, and the hand before that one, "shopping for books, and knowing the chicky, instead of buying them, she'll try to read the whole store."

"She could already be back" commented Namur as he pushed a pile of chips into the middle, "I raise,"

"Fuck," Thatch muttered, "fold" he slammed his card back onto the table and turned to Izo. "She does just pop straight into her room sometimes, goes straight to reading and shit."

Marco nodded, "just go check and leave our card game in peace. I fold" Namur chuckled as they started to pull the chips towards him with his webbed hands.

Izo stood up, "I'm going to check, but not because you told me too, but because I'm curious." He heard Thatch say something along the lines of 'halleluiah' as he walked towards Mila's room.

Once at her door, Izo twisted the doorknob, just expecting to peek in and check, however it was locked. He tried again, to make sure it wasn't just sticky or something, but failed. Mila had never locked her door before.

Izo knocked on the door, starting to worry. "Mila?"

"Yeah?" sounded the tiny girl through the door.

Relief flooded over himself, he thought something had happened. "Why is your door locked?"

"I got a really good book and I don't want to be disturbed" her voice sounded strange to Izo, but he couldn't put his finger on what was different.

"Oh, okay. Will you be finished by dinner, or should I bring you something?"

"Bring my some please."

He nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see him, "Okay, I'm glad you had fun today."

The only reply was a muffled "Uh huh,"

Izo walked away, even more edgy than before for some reason.

Later that night Izo was walking up from the kitchen, plate in hand and a Thatch in tow.

"Why do I have to come," whined Thatch, who was being forced to play delivery man with Izo.

"Because," Izo began to explain, "You need to stop gambling away everything you own."

His cheeks puffed out like a child's, "I planned on winning it all back,"

Izo was about to go off on his signature 'gambling is bad' speech, but halted at the sight of a foreign girl on the main deck. She wore a pink-pinstriped uniform and had the prettiest golden yellow hair shaped into a bob. "Excuse me," the girl said timidly, clutching a bag to her chest, clearly frightened, "I'm looking for a little girl." She glanced around nervously, "I think she said she lived here?"

There was a slight moment of shocked silence until Thatch said "Everyone must be drunk off their ass if they let her get on the ship."

Izo waved him off, not wanting to admit he thought the same thing, "Are you looking for Mila?" he asked.

"Um, she has blue hair, kinda stormy looking, mossy green eyes, cute as a button." She said, a little uncertain. "She ate a devil fruit?"

Thatch nodded, "Yep, that's Mila." He shot a protective, brotherly glare her way, "But what does that have to do with you?"

She was crippled under his glare, "I just wanted to thank her," she stuttered, clutching the bag harder.

"What's that?" Thatch jerked his head like a wanna-be gangster towards the bag.

The girl pulled it opened and showed them the contents, "Their lollipops. I work at a candy store, and Mila was shopping there, but she only got lollipops, so I assumed they were her favorite. I wanted to give these to her." She explained.

"So," Izo said, a critical eyebrow raised, "you want to thank her for buying candy at your store by giving her more candy?"

She shook her head, her golden hair swishing side to side, "No, she saved my brother from the Two Stars today." She said passionately, clutching the bag tighter to her chest, "If she hadn't shown up, he would have died!"

"Wait, calm down," Thatch waved his hands, "who are these 'Two Stars' guys?"

"An incredibly violent gang prominent in the city," explained Marco as he approached the scene unfolding on the deck, "What is going on that has to do with the Two Stars?"

Thatch shrugged, "I'm not exactly sure myself."

Izo rolled his eyes at Thatch, "This girl," he said, gesturing towards the blonde, "wants to thank Mila for saving her brother form the Two Stars, but we've heard nothing about this."

"Wait," the girl spoke up, confused, "did she not tell you? I assumed she made it back since she wasn't in the alley when I went to check. There was only blood left by the time I got there."

"Blood?" the color drained from Izo's face, the girl nodded. Izo dropped the dinner plate and rushed down towards Mila's room.

The girl looked panicked at Izo's reaction to her news, "Is something wrong?" she asked, voice shaking.

"Mila locked herself in her room since she got back. She hasn't told us anything," Marco placed his hands on her shoulders to cease her shaking, "you need to tell us everything you know." Her eyes were wide with fear, but she nodded. Marco's head whipped toward Thatch, who was frozen in place. The shock of hearing Mila was hard for him to comprehend. He had never known how to deal with the pain of others, especially the people closest to him. "Thatch," Thatch continued to stare off into space, in a daze of shock, "Thatch!" Marco put more force into his voice. He had dealt with Thatch when he got this way before, and the best approach was to be gentle, but they had no time for gentle.

Thatch snapped back to reality, "What?"

"Go get Jim and the medical team and follow Izo to Mila's room," there was the slightest pause before Thatch nodded and darted off towards medical wing.

Marco turned back to the frightened girl, "Now, tell me everything from the beginning." Once she nodded, Marco released her shoulders from his hold.

She took in a shaky breathe, trying to sort her thoughts. After a moment, her shaking ceased and she began her story. "When my brother, Jacob, was 17 he started to fall into the wrong crowd. We grew up in the city, so we knew all about the Two Stars and other gangs. But when our father died, he kinda fell apart. He started to get into drugs and the drugs led to the Two Stars, my mom and I didn't know what to do anymore. I was only 15 at the time. He has risen in the ranks since then, and recently he was told to 'dispose' of a rival gang's leader, and couldn't. He came to me the other day, and told me everything, saying he had changed, and that he was sorry and that he was going to leave them. That what he was doing today, telling them he was done. He found me as I was getting off work today, half-dead and rambling on about a little girl. That she was a savior in the form of a child. That she was an angel with mythical powers and a golden heart. I thought he was completely insane till he said she had stormy blue hair, moss green eyes and a lollipop. I knew then I had met her earlier. I pressed him for more information, he finally said that she claimed to be a Whitebeard Pirate. I left him in our mother's care to come and thank her. She sacrificed herself to save my brother. She told him to run and she took on four men." Tears started to fall from her brown eyes, "I have always loved my brother despite what he had done in the past, and I can't thank her enough for what she has done." Her breathing had become rapid and desperate, almost like the story pained her to tell it.

Marco tried to keep his composure for the girl, but his thoughts were all on Mila. The girl had left an impression on everyone on the ship on the short amount of time she had been with them. There would be chaos if she was hurt, pops would not stand it. "Okay, stay calm, what's your name?"

She wiped a tear away from her check, "Jamie."

"Good, I'm Marco nice to meet you." she attempted a smile for Marco and his attempt at normalcy, "Now Jamie, you're going to have to tell this again, our captain will want to hear it."

(**A/N** slight flashback to when Izo went off to go to Mila….. and go!)

Izo had abandoned his sandals half way to Mila's room in his mad dash to reach her. If I had only realized what was wrong hours ago, Izo cursed himself, this wouldn't have happened. His guilt only fueled his legs to go faster to reach the girl.

He flung himself at the door as he repeatable twisted the door knob futilely, "Mila! Open the door!" he yelled, still trying to use the door knob in desperation.

Izo almost missed her hushed "no" with all his persistent door knob twisting.

"Shit," he cursed to himself and the door. He gave up on the door knob and whipped out his twin pistols from his kimono. In an instant the hinges of the door were blown off by his pistols. The door toppled over as soon as Izo pushed through it and into the room.

Inside, Mila was laying lip in her bed, covers coated in blood were wrapped tightly around her as drops of sweat fell from her forehead. Her face was bruised and caked in dried blood from her split lip. Streak of blood had been cleared away by her tears. Her lovely eyes were clamped shut as if trying to keep her thoughts.

Izo fell to his knees next to Mila's bed. He gently pushed back her slick bangs, her forehead was burning up and her were checks feverish. "Darling, what happened?" he said quietly, softly caressing her hair.

She flinched away from his touch, "Go away," her voice was weak and sickly, "I don't want you here."

"Shhhh, you don't know what you're saying," Izo could only hope that was the case. He couldn't live in a world where she hated him.

"No!" Mila started to writhe under the covers, "I failed everyone. I don't belong here!" Her voice was laced with panic, her moves getting more jerky and frantic. "I don't deserve it, I don't want it, get it off!" she was on the verge of screaming now. Izo didn't know what to do, she was clearly hallucinating about something or the fever was making her crazy. The sight of her writhing and rambling nonsense was almost too much for him to bear. "Get it off!" she screamed again. She flung her right arm out from under the covers, elbow facing out.

Izo jerked back away from her arm. The inside of her elbow had two stars deeply burned into the sensitive skin. The burns were red and swollen, a red ring had formed around them, and was slowly expanding. The stench of the burnt flesh had been quenched by the blanket, but know it hit Izo hard. The nauseating smell could turn any man off meat for weeks.

"Get it off!" Mila screeched hopelessly.

The sound of running feet loudened as they approached Mila's room, Thatch in the lead. As soon as they reached her room though, Thatch froze in the door way. Taken aback by the sight of the sight of his longtime friend on his knees next to Mila, a sweet, innocent, brilliant little girl, twisting in pain. The head doctor, Jim, pushed past Thatch's frozen figure and straight to Mila. Soon, followed his staffers and a stretcher. He immediately started to examine her injuries, starting from her head and going down.

"We need to take her to med wing, she might have broken a rib." Jim instructed to two of his staffers, "We have to lift her gently so not to disturb her ribs or arm. Each take a side a lower her onto the stretcher." They nodded, and began to lift Mila off her bed as Izo scooted against the wall, head in his hands.

As the staffers started to lift her, Mila started trashing violently as her face scrunched in pain, and started to chant 'off' in a raspy whisper.

"Move back," Jim pushed his way through the men, pulling a syringe out form his lab coat.

"What are you doing?!" Thatch asked horrified. Shaken form his daze by the needle.

"The infection from the burn is causing hallucinations," he said, uncapping the syringe and posing it over a vein in her left arm, "she needs to be sedated before she hurts herself even more." He slowly injected the sedative into her system, almost instantaneously Mila's muscles relaxed and she descended into a clam state.

"Get her to the med wing, I need to do a full exanimation there," he said and tucked the now empty syringe back into his coat. As he followed his staffers out of Mila's room, he placed a firm hand on Thatch's shoulder, "She should be fine." Thatch nodded, not really hearing anything but the roaring of his blood in his ears.

Izo and Thatch were left alone in the empty bed room with bloody sheets. Izo slowly lifted his horrified gaze from his hands to look at Thatch, "They're not going to get away with this." He proclaimed. Thatch nodded, Mila may be fine, but the bastards who did that to her were sure as hell not.

**(A/N) **Awwwwww shit! Stuffs going down! Stay tuned for the ass kicking yet to come!

LB


	13. Chapter 12

**(A/N) **So a few things that you should know before getting into this chapter. First of all, it's kinda of intense, there's pretty gruesome fight and such, blood and gore, the whole ten yards. This is rated T for a reason, so it's not anything you shouldn't be prepared for. Secondly, I mention a weapon that I think most aren't particularly familiar with, the tonfa. It consists of a stick with a perpendicular handle attached a third of the way down the length of the stick, and is about 15-20 inches long. It was traditionally made from red or white oak and wielded in pairs for those who didn't know. Now you may proceed.

LB

Chapter 12

Mila POV

I felt them, though I couldn't see them or hear them, I knew they were there. I could feel them crawling up my right arm, slithering and snaking around it, squeezing it tighter. They left trails of guilt and sadness where ever they crawled. No matter what I did or said, they wouldn't leave me alone. They would snake their self in through the stars burned permanently into my flesh and writhed around my insides, squeezing my heart the hardest. I felt them creeping up my throat, taking my voice and leaving screams. I could feel them invading my mind. Rampaging through my precious thoughts, corrupting everything. My fondest memories were warped into unimaginable sadness. I was forced to relive that moment over and over and over and over. I wanted them out, I wanted them off.

Third POV

The medical wing was packed to the brim with crew brothers. All were waiting anxiously for news on Mila, who had yet to wake up. News of her attack had spread across the ship by the time she had arrived in the medical wing on the stretcher, and even after Jim commanded them all to leave, they refused to leave the girl's side.

After entrusting his staffers to monitor Mila, Jim, Marco, Thatch, and Izo gathered in Whitebeards room to discuss Mila's condition.

Nervous rustling came from Jim, who was shuffling his medical papers in front of Whitebeard nervously. "Mila will recover, do you really need to know anymore?" Jim asked Whitebeard, who had demanded a report on Mila's health. He knew once Whitebeard heard of her condition, that he would go on a rampage, and Jim wanted to avoid this at all costs.

"Yes," he firmly said, "I need to know everything."

Jim swallowed nervously, but nodded he would always obey his captain, even if it meant dooming a city to destruction, "Mila had taken several blows to the face, causing a minor concussion. She also received either several punches or kicks, maybe both, to the ribs. She didn't end up breaking anything, but are were bruised. The worst injury is the burn on the inside of her arm." He cleared his throat, "Um, it seemed that the burn was caused by heating a metal object up and repeatable applying it to the same place. The perpetrator did this repeatedly until they burned through a tendon. That will that will take the longest to heal, if it ever heals completely."

"What do you mean by that?" Marco asked nervously, fearing the worst.

"Well, a burn this deep will defiantly leave scarring, but I'm more considered about the tendon, it was almost burned through entirely. It may never heal completely and leave her right arm significantly weaker than her left. The position of the burn may also limit movement." Jim shook his head, "It may leave her slightly handicapped for life."

"But it was so small!" Izo protested, "I saw it myself! It couldn't leave that much damage?"

"I won't know the severity of it till I can monitor it. I could also research a physical therapy method to improve muscle movement, but we have to wait."

"And her fever?" Thatch whispered.

"Ah, yes, that was caused by an infection from the burns. It wasn't high enough for brain damage though, so it won't have any lasting effect. It had been brought down considerably since then, but she still might not be coherent."

The room was in silence. Everyone deep in thought. Whitebeard had his hands clutched tightly together under his chin, trying to control his anger. He was constantly scolded by his sons about his temper, and how breaking the ship wouldn't solve any problems. But breaking some skulls would solve everything. To let the so called gang abuse and permanently effect his daughter's future was a disgrace to his name and honor as a father. If he couldn't protect his youngest child, what was the use in being the strongest man alive?

"We attack." Whitebeard said finally, "We will completely annihilate this 'gang'. You understand? Marco, have the twelfth division find out their base by morning. That is when we attack, prepare yourselves."

At his final word, they all took their leave. No one was going to argue, they all wanted the same thing as Whitebeard, revenge.

The only sounds echoing throughout the medical ward were that of a steady beat coming from Mila's heart monitor and the slight rustling of paper from Jim's desk, where he was examining Mila's report again. Thatch was resting in a chair placed next to Mila's bed where he could watch the steady rise and fall of her chest. It was late into the night and most were sleeping, preparing for their attack on the Two Stars in the morning.

The door creaked open as Haruta tiptoed in. He and his seconds in command, Noah, had just returned from their mission in the city, and while Noah went to bed, Haruta went to go check on his longtime friend and partner in crime, who had barley said a word to anyone all night.

"How she doing?" he asked after entering the room and getting no reaction from Thatch.

"She hasn't woken up yet." he said simply, his voice void of emotion.

"I can watch her," he offered, "the fourth division is in the lead group for the attack, you should get some sleep."

He shook his head, eyes focused and unblinkingly staring at Mila. He had yet to take his eyes off her as they talked, "I want-, I need to be here when she wakes up." Thatch's voice cracked with sadness

A piece of Haruta's heart chipped off at hearing his friend with such a hopeless tone, "This isn't your fault, or anyone's fault." Haruta tried to reason with him. "She's going to be okay, and the only thing we can do is kick their asses for hurting her. And we can't even do that we you're asleep on your feet."

"But it is my fault," Thatch's head whipped to face Haruta, his hair limp and eyes bloodshot from sleep depravity, "how can I, or any of us, claim the title of brother if we can't even protect our little sister!" His voice had risen and was laced with pain and anguish. Regret flickered in his eyes and he turned back to Mila, still fast asleep. "We can't, not after this," He mumbled in a much more somber tone.

"No," Haruta started to turn to leave, "we have lost the right to claim that title now, but we can regain it once again." The medical wing door softly slipped shut, leaving Thatch alone to mourn over his failure, and to realize that it was not the end.

The silence that filled the city was deafening. It was as if the citizens could feel the impending destruction looming over them.

The only area not effected by the ominous mood was a so called 'abandoned' warehouse near the ship yard, where the Two Star gang happened to call home. The usual daily activities were going about that day like any other, men were counting wads of money, drugs were being smoked and snorted, alcohol was being consumed in immense amounts and gambling was taking place at every table. If anything, it was calmer than usual.

That was until the giant sliding door splinted into pieces as the one and only Whitebeard Pirates made their entrance. On the front lines were first division commander, Marco the Phoenix, fourth division commander Thatch, fifth division commander, Flower Sword Vista and none other than Whitebeard himself.

A senior member of the Two Stars moved forward slowly, shaken by the sudden appearance of one the four great emperors in their base of operations, "May I- " he stuttered under Whitebeard's glare, "may I help you?"

Without a single word, Whitebeard swung his giant bisento into the shaking man, and knocked him across the wide warehouse and into the wall, where he left a man sized dent before he slumped over unconscious, maybe dead, against the floor.

Everyone in the building suddenly drew their guns, or pulled out their knives or swords. They then all turned their weapons towards Whitebeard and his crew, a stupid decision on their part.

"I have no interest in talking to talking to you scum." He spat, "I am only here to send a message." He took one fist and smashed it against the air, sending cracks in the atmosphere and shaking the ground.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" he yelled, the earth split open at his feet, an enormous crater divided the warehouse in two. Some of the more unfortunate fell straight into its depths and straight to hell.

Taking that as the signal, the first, fourth and fifth divisions charged into the broken warehouse, weapons raised. At the sight of the blood thirsty pirates, the gang members lunged straight into battle. Only one hesitated before entering the massacre. His ring suddenly feeling heavy with the dried blood that of a tiny girl claiming to be a pirate. He hadn't bothered cleaning his ring after the beating, he saw the blood as a trophy. But now, as it dragged him down as he tried to escape his certain death, it seemed more like a curse.

From his spot in the sky, Marco spotted the coward running away. A real man would never run away from a fight. Marco dove in phoenix form, blazing a trail of brilliant blue flames in his wake. He scooped down and caught the man by his shoulders and ascended back into the air with him in his clutches. He struggled fruitlessly as he tried to escape Marco's iron hold on him, arms flailing. A glimpse of silver caught Marco's eyes as he spotted a blood stained ring on the cowards hand, on it was the raised imprint of a star. Fury ripped through Marco, fueling his blue flames to grow brighter and stronger. He was Mila's attacker.

For a moment, Marco contemplated just dropping him, and let gravity take its course. He would be more than satisfied just to see his corpse splattered on the ground. He deserved worse though. He spotted the man with the most hatred and grief in his eye on the ground, swinging twin swords viscously, as if he was putting all his emotions into each strike. Marco descended just enough so when he dropped the scum, he wouldn't die, sadly

Thatch was barely effected by the man who was deposited from the sky to in front of him. Marco was always the best at gift giving. Without questioning the reason his friend had dropped the man in front of him, Thatch attacked, sending his into a flurry of slashes.

The men had to first take a few seconds to realizing he flying, then a few more to realize he was falling, and then even more to realize the there was a mad pirate with crazy hair in front of him slashing willy nilly. He dodged just in time to get away with a nick on his cheek. When the man's swords came down upon him once more, he knew that this pirate was out for blood. The man drew his tonfa from his waist band and grabbed the perpendicular handle attached a third of the way down the length of the 20 inch long stick. With his weapon in each hand, he was prepared for the pirates next attack, he blocked his one sword with the back of one of his tonfa, while flipping the other out and blocking his other sword.

Thatch jumped back from the man, his forearms raised and prepared to block his next attack. Thatch had cut down every man that had blocked his way before, and he would not let this one escape. He swung his right sword down on his head, and the gangster blocked by forming an X with the tonfa, this locked Thatch's sword in place, but also immobilized his opponent. Thatch took his other sword and swung it straight into his side, imbedding itself deep into his flesh. The man gasp, spitting out blood. He collapsed and released Thatch's sword from his grip. Not giving him another thought, Thatch swung his sword down on his head, letting the man's blood spill onto the floor as he moved onto his next target.

That night the city of Etoile was stained red by the blood of the Two Star members. Every base was annihilated by Whitebeard Pirates, not one survivor. That night was recorded as The Star Massacre.

The newspapers didn't scream of the viciousness and heartlessness of the pirates the next day, but of the blessing they bestowed upon them by freeing them from the hold the gang had on the city. It also pronounced to the world that the Whitebeard Pirates would always be welcomed in Etoile.

**(A/N)** So Thanksgiving is next week, and all my family lives in the middle of nowhere, so I might not have access to a good computer for writing and updating. For those who haven't noticed, I usually update a new chapter every Tuesday, I'll be home by then, but depending on my schedule I might not have a chapter finished by then. So you never know. Thanks for all the positive feedback for the last chapter, I hope for more. Favorite, follow and review.

LB


	14. Chapter 13

**(A/N) **Yea, I'm back in civilization! Due to being in the middle of nowhere throughout the week I typed the majority of it on my phone. So, there's probably a decent amount of mistakes and such. I probably should have spent more time on it, but since I got such great feedback from the last chapter I wanted to put this one out as fast as possible. Hope you enjoy!

LB

Chapter 13

Mila POV

The first time I woke up it was dark and quiet, just how I liked it. I slowly cracked open my eyes to discover that I was in the medical wing instead of my room, that was the last place I remember being before blacking out. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes then carefully pushed myself up using my left arm, vividly remembering what had happened in the alley. My right arm was heavily wrapped in bandages. I hesitantly wiggled each of my fingers on my right hand, confirming that I still had use of each one. Even though I had full use of all five of my fingers, I could barely bend my arm while I tested its limitations, pain ached throughout it.

I looked around the medical wing to find that Thatch was sleeping soundly in a chair next to my bed. I noticed a few nicks and scratches, probably from a recent fight. I really hope that wasn't because of me I thought.

My stomach made an unattractive grumbling sound, interrupting my thoughts. The last thing I remember eating was a lollipop, and who knew how long ago that was. I glanced around the med wing, seeing if I would get lucky and find that someone left some dinner or something. It seemed I had shit luck, since there wasn't a nibble in sight. First I get beat up and an alley and now I had to starve, the universe must be against me. I sighed, I really didn't want to get up, but I was really hungry.

Thinking only of the yummy food stashed in the kitchen, I blinked into the heavenly place where the food was kept. It must have been either really late or really early, since no one was in the kitchen. I cautiously walked to a bowl of fruit on the counter, not putting too much strain on my weaken body, I knew I shouldn't be up and that if any of my brothers knew I would be in deep trouble, but the shiny red apple was calling to me. I fumbled with it for a second before taking a bite. I would have to get used to becoming a lefty since my right arm just lay limp at my side, not listening to my commands. I looked at the useless appendage, I wasn't exactly sad about its immobile state at the moment, more disappointed in how easily it was beaten.

I scarfed my apple and even grabbed a second before blinking back into my bed in the med wing, not bothering to clean up after myself. I snuggled into my pillow, laying my right arm gently on my side. I smiled at the sleeping Thatch.

"Good night Thatch," I whispered and fell back into the now comforting darkness.

Izo POV

"Who the fuck left a mess in my kitchen?!"

The head chef of the Moby Dick screamed as he emerged from the depths of the ship. Dom rarely left the kitchen, he got up early and stayed up late cooking for the ginormous crew. He had few rules for those who worked in his kitchen, the first was to never serve spoiled food, put effort into the work or get the hell out, never let Thatch near him, and never, ever leave a mess. He was scary enough to enforce each of those rules even though he didn't belong to any division. The burly aging man had plenty experience with a variety of sharp tools. Dom with a kitchen knife was enough to even scare Marco away.

"Oh shit," I heard someone mumble, everyone knew that Dom emerging from the kitchen was a bad omen. Everyone could feel his anger, some were even smart enough to vacate the area.

"Hello Dom," I said, trying to diffuse his short temper.

"Izo" he snapped, waving one of his kitchen knives in the air, "were you in my kitchen?"

"No," I soothed as I backed away slowly from the dangerous cooking utensil, "what's wrong Dom?"

"Some bastard left, not one, but TWO apple cores on my stainless steel counters! Two Izo, TWO!" Dom was so infuriated that he was shaking.

"I'm really sorry, but there isn't anything to be done about it now." I said trying to reason with him.

"Oh yes there is," he shook his knife in my face angrily, I jumped back just in time to keep my nose attached to my face, "I'm going to catch the little fucker and slice him up!" Dom shot off in a flurry.

I sighed, I now had to alert everyone the he was out for blood. The few times that situations like this had happened before someone had always ended up in the medical wing.

Mila POV

My stomach gurgled angrily at me for not getting up earlier. Even though at that particular moment, I was in the kitchen spreading peanut butter on two slices of bread. I had blinked in there the moment I woke up, craving peanut butter.

My midnight snacks were becoming a regular thing. I have yet to wake up during the day, it might be myself conscious trying to avoid the confrontation with my brothers or dad. It might also be that I have evolved into a nocturnal human. But then again, that might be me avoiding the problem again. It was hard to avoid though since every time I woke up Thatch was sleeping in the same chair by my bedside. I wonder what he does while I'm absorbed into the darkness. What happened to my charismatic brother who always had a smile on his face?

I sighed as I smashed the pieces of bread together, thinking about Thatch will only make me feel worse. I know I should ease my brother's worries by waking, but I'm still not ready. My right arm has yet to move from its pitiful state at my side, I do t think I could handle everyone's pity right now. I would be babied and treated like the little girl who was beaten to the ground in that alley. And I was no longer that girl.

Izo POV

Dom was on a rampage, and I was on a mission.

It was the sixth time Dom had found a mess in the kitchen when he came in that morning. Dom had nearly killed his kitchen staff again that morning after discovering an open jar of peanut butter, a sticky knife, and crumbs on his counter.

I had taken it upon myself to find whoever the culprit is before Dom murdered anyone. It had to be someone who had a thing for midnight snacks and balls of steel.

Now I know Thatch is neither, but he is known for messing with his crew brothers. So obviously my first stop was to medical wing, where Thatch had put up camp next to Mila's bed.

After beating the shit out of the Two Stars and setting sail once again, Thatch had not moved from the medical wing. He slept there, ate there, he did everything there, other than take a shower, sadly. Even though his meals were brought to him there, Thatch might be sneaking a little extra on the side. Like most men on the crew, Thatch had an enormous appetite, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was the midnight snacker.

Inside the medical wing was the same thing as yesterday. Mila was still lying unconscious on her bed, Thatch was still sitting next to her staring absently in space. A sad scene that the crew was starting to become accustomed to. The first few days when Thatch began to stay holed up in the sanitary room, his brothers had stayed and tried to comfort or talk to him. They all soon learned that Thatch was mostly unresponsive while absorbed in his thoughts. They decided it was better to let him think in peace, and let him be.

"Thatch, have you eaten today?" I asked

"No, no one has brought me breakfast yet." He replied simply.

"Well, Dom is having a bit of a fit at the moment."

The normal Thatch would be interested in ship gossip, ready to use it as leverage against his brothers. This Thatch only replied with a simple, flat, "oh really?"

A little deflated by his lack of enthusiasm, I continued my questioning. "So you haven't had any peanut butter sandwiches in the last 24 hours or so?"

"What?" Thatch pulled his eyebrows together, not taking his eyes off of the blank space in front of him. "No, what are you talking about Izo?"

I sighed, defeated, "nothing of importance, how is Mila doing?"

His eyes seemed to get more distant than before, "Same as yesterday, she hasn't woken up yet."

"Oh," was all I could say. Mila had only improved in the fact that her bruises and cut on her face were healed and her bruised ribs were better, according to Jim at least. Her arm was still wrapped in thick bandages. She looked peaceful at the moment, not like when she had been hallucinating. Her features were relaxed and eyes lightly shut. She wasn't screaming, her lips lay slightly parted now, only a smudge of peanut butter sat by the corner. Wait, peanut butter? I leaned in closer to Mila so my face was hovering just above her. That was defiantly peanut butter on her mouth, but what was it doing there.

"Izo?" Thatch said, sounding slightly concerned for his brother, who looked insane as he glared at Mila's mouth. "What are you doing?"

I stepped back and pointed accusingly at Mila's mouth, "peanut butter"

"What?" Thatch leaned closer to Mila, "what the hell?" He said once he saw that I wasn't completely insane and saw the peanut butter, "weren't you asking about a peanut butter sandwich earlier?"

I explained the case of the midnight snacker to Thatch, and how I was searching for the culprit, "But you said she hasn't woken up, so Mila couldn't possibly it." I reasoned, Thatch nodded, deep in thought as he stroked his goatee.

"Yeah, it can't be" Thatch said half hearteningly, not entirely convinced himself.

Mila POV

I slowly arched my back as I ascended from the darkness of my sleep. My spine creaked and cracked as I stretched. When I opened my eyes to glance at the sleeping Thatch next to me, I was shocked to find out that he wasn't sleeping. He was wide awake, his elbows on his knees as he rested his chin in the palm of his hands. He looked a lot like dad as he stated at me with knowing eyes.

I jerked back in my bed, why was he was awake?! It was the middle of the night. As Thatch continued to stare at me, I stuttered under his watch, "I-I can explain-"

"Are you hungry?" He asks calmly. I notice a plate of roast beef on my night stand. I nod and he passes the plate and the fork next to it to me. I begin to eat, every so often I would glance at Thatch, whose eyes never left me.

After I had finished and was pushing a half-eaten carrot around my plate, I tentatively said, "So I've been found out?"

"No," Thatch said, "Only I know, Izo might suspect something though."

I nodded, keeping my head down. I couldn't decide if I was embarrassed or ashamed about being found out.

After more agonizing silence, Thatch spoke up rather abruptly, "I get it," he said, "Not waking up that is. I would see why you would avoid us, even though we're family."

I played with a loose thread on the blanket in my lap, "I just don't want to face reality yet. A lot happened, I don't think I can really deal with all that yet."

"You don't have to just yet. Just stop leaving a mess in Dom's kitchen before he kills us all." I laughed, it felt like I haven't laughed in years. Thatch stood up from his chair and stretched out his back, he cracked a smile after hearing his joints pop "I think I need a night in a real bed for once." Halfway through the door, he turned his head and said, "Remember, you don't have to deal with everything alone." He gave me a calm smile and a soft, "night Mila"

I smiled, "Good night Thatch."

Izo POV

I couldn't decide what surprised me the most, that Thatch sitting on the sparring deck, not inside the medical wing by Mila's bedside, or that Mila was sitting next to him. I rubbed my eyes, I had to be hallucinating. Yesterday she was unconscious in her bed, now she was sitting causally next to Thatch watching Fossa and Vista spar. She even had a shadow of a smile on, even though her right arm was constrained in a sling.

"Mila!"

Her head bobbed away from the intense match, she grinned at me when she saw I was standing there, "Hi Onii-san,"

How could she act so causal!? Why was Thatch just sitting there? He was the most concerned about her, and now he's just sitting there like he's about to have some tea and cookies! "You should be resting in bed! Does Jim know you're awake? What about Pops or Marco? You should put sunscreen on! You'll burn out here! What are you doing?" I nearly screamed.

She tilted her head to the side, her moss green eyes bright "I think it's time for me to learn how to fight," she glanced at Thatch next to her, "Right?"

Thatch chuckled at her in good humor, he smiled, "sure chicky"

"WHAT!" Everyone on this ship has gone insane.

**(A/N) **Okay, so not a very eventful chapter, but it's leading up to the good stuff. Keep in mind all this is going on while they're heading to Fishman Island, where the real shit will go done. I am just so excited for that, like I can't wait to write it. It will have to wait though, because Mila still has some developing left to do before then. I almost forgot, Blinking Child has a total 50 followers and over 4,000 views at the moment! I know that's not a lot in the whole scheme of things, but it means a lot to me that all these people are following Mila's adventures. So a big thanks you goes out to all you followers out there!

LB


	15. Chapter 14

**(A/N) **I do not like this chapter. I rewrote it at least six times and I'm still not pleased with it. So sorry in advanced. Rewriting it so many times caused a minor delay, hence it being released on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, which I might start to do now. I have nothing on both Wednesday and Saturday, the other days I work or have school activities and such. Maybe I'll move it the update days to Saturday, any preferences?

LB

Chapter 14

Third POV

Mila shrugged, "Yeah, why not. It's about time."

"No! Absolutely not!" Izo cried, "You were unconscious just yesterday and all you're thinking about is fighting?"

"Why shouldn't I be thinking about it?" She said, a slight tinge of anger was laced in her voice, she did not like being told what to do, "If I had known how to fight properly I wouldn't have been unconscious in the first place!"

"She technically wasn't unconscious," Thatch mumbled under his breathe, not really wanting to get in the middle of their spat.

"You're just a child," Izo's voice softened a fraction, ignoring Thatch's earlier comment.

"So? I'm also a pirate!" Mila was practically screaming at this point. "If I learned, I could be as good as a fighter as you, or Marco. I just want to learn!"

"What about me?" Thatch grumbled, but was continued to be ignored.

"No, that is my final answer Mila." Izo said, finally putting his foot down.

Irritated, Mila puffed out her cheeks, "Well sucks, 'cause Fossa already agreed to help me."

"What?!" Izo spun around to glare to Fossa, who had halted his match with Vista and was wiping sweat of his brow. He seemed unfazed by the sixteenth commander's glare as he reached to grab a cigar from his pants.

"What," he shrugged causally, "how could I say no to such a cute face?"

"By growing a pair!" Izo shouted.

"Izo, it's not your choice, so you have no say in the matter." Mila protested, the most defiant look in her eyes.

"Really, because last time I checked you were ten and too young to make your own decisions." He said this harsher than before, Izo was losing patience quickly.

"Well, last time I checked, you weren't really my big brother." She hissed, venom in her voice.

Izo froze, pain filled his eyes. Thatch elbowed Mila, "Come on Mila, your taking this too far." He sounded slightly afraid of this new, harsher Mila. Thatch understood reusing to listen to Izo, he did it all the time, but this was too far.

"No, I'm not." She spun on him, "I don't have to listen to any of you, you're not my family!" She screamed, puting full force behind her word. Mila didn't even wait for their stunned reactions before disappearing. She left the sparring deck in thick silence.

A yellow tuff of hair peaked over the roof of Whitebeard's cabin. Mila was sprawled out on top, her sling flung to the side and her arm draped over her stomach. She looked miserable in the beautiful midday sun. "Hey Mila,"

She didn't even acknowledge Marco, Mila just glared harder into the sun.

"So," he said as he heaved himself onto the roof, "heard about the little incident on the sparring deck."

"So?" Mila snapped.

"I was just going to complement you on your great performance." He said causally, stretching out next to Mila.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She stated blankly.

"Really? So you didn't purposely piss of Izo and Thatch so they couldn't possibly pity you because they're too busy thinking you a brat."

Mila snorted, "How did you come to that conclusion pineapple head?"

"Well," Marco reached over and grabbed her sling, "I overheard a certain conversation late last night and once your break down spread over the whole ship, I put two and two together."

"Hmmmm," she rolled her head to the side slightly to gaze at Marco, "Maybe you're not as stupid as I thought you were pineapple head."

Marco chuckled, "I have been around for quite a while."

She rose an eyebrow, "How long exactly?"

He shook his head, "Now is not the time for that conversation, you have more important things to think about." He shook her sling, "like how to get over this and make it up to Izo and Thatch."

Mila flopped her head back against the roof, "I was kinda going to avoid that. I came up here to hide for a reason."

"You keep claiming to be a pirate, but a real pirate doesn't back done for anyone or anything."

"When did this happen?" Izo complained as he vented to Haruta and Namur and devoured a bowl of ice cream, "Wasn't she just a cute bubble of cuteness, now she's a cute bubble of poo."

"Poo?" Namur commented unhelpfully, he had never been one for consoling others.

Haruta shoved him in the side, "It's probably just a phase." He defended the girl.

Another scope of ice cream was shoveled into Izo's frowning mouth, "Nah," he swallowed the lump, "You should have seen her face, it was all pissy and mean."

"She's ten," Namur said, "ten year olds are like birds, they change their minds every five minutes. She'll get over it."

"Namur's right," Thatch approached their table in the dining hall, he swung his long legs over the bench. "She's just being a fucking brat right now." He scrunched his face up in an unpleasant expression, "we had this perfect moment last night, and it's like she flipped this bitch switch on."

Izo was so distressed he didn't even scold Thatch's potty mouth and continued to eat his ice crean. "Wait, what happened last night?" Haruta asked.

Thatch shrugged, "She was the midnight snacker, and I stayed up till she woke up and we chatted. She was all nervous and insecure and adorable, and we had this heart to heart. Then this morning she came to find me like nothing had ever happened. We went to the sparring deck together 'cause she wanted to fight and shit. Everything was going fine till Izo came and screwed everything up." He glared at Izo who just kept shoveling spoonful and after spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"Bitch switch," mumbled Namur understandingly.

Thatch threw his arms up in triumph, "Exactly!"

"Guys, I don't think that's an actual thing." Haruta protested.

"But it is!" Thatch moaned.

They continued their battle over the 'bitch switch' theory as Izo stared at his empty ice cream bowl, only hoping that Mila would get over it.

Mila didn't get over it, at least not right away. Neither Thatch nor Izo saw Mila for at least a week. At the most they would see a glimpse of blue hair or a flash of overalls as she blinked throughout the ship. With the fewer sightings of Mila, the angrier Thatch got. He thought they had reached a good place, but no, she had flipped her 'bitch switch' and all the touchy feeling crap went down the drain.

He was being extra pissy when he walked into the med wing on a search for his favorite yellow scarf which had gone missing. It was the last straw, all he wanted was his favorite scarf and didn't even want to go anywhere near the med wing, it only fueled the anger caused by Mila.

Thatch flung the med wing door wide open, causing it to slam against the wall. The cracking noise would have disturbed the patients, if there had been any. Apparently everyone was being far too safe.

"JIM!" Thatch yelled to the back, where Jim was usually located, stuffing his nose in a giant stack of papers. His desk was empty, but one of the cloth partitions were drawn between one of the beds. Through the partition Thatch could see two figures, one was taller and bulkier, probably Jim. The other was seated on the bed, and had a small, petite frame. Mila.

Ohhhhhh, Thatch was about to get hella salty. He charged over to the covered bed, ready to give Mila a piece of his mind. When he tore away the thin cloth, only Jim was standing there, a strange contraption in hand.

Thatch narrowed his eyes at the innocent doctor, "What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously. The doctor was starting to look very nervous, drops of sweet started falling down his forehead. He shifted the thing in his hands nervously. The thing consisted of a variety of gears and bolts, long metal bars connected two parts. "What's that?" Thatch pointed a sassy finger at the thing.

"Nothing," He shifted so that the object was partially concealed from sight.

He creased his eyebrows together, "What was Mila doing here?"

"She wasn't here." Jim lied, he was a pathetic liar too.

Thatch snorted, "Whatever, I'm just looking for my scarf." Jim jerked his head over to his desk. Thatch spotted his trusty yellow neckwear on top of an enormous stack of papers. Without taking an extra glance at Jim or his weird item, Thatch left.

Izo was sitting at his desk doing the most boring job required of a pirate, paper work. While shifting through a pile of soap and shampoo inventory lists, a soft knock broke his concentration.

"Come in"

The door creaked open to expose a certain little girl. "Um, I have something for you."

Izo nodded, mouth hanging slightly open. She had been avoiding him for a week, and now she just pops out of nowhere? What was even going on?

She slowly edged her way closer to him, keeping her right arm concealed behind her back till she reached his desk. She slowly took her arm from behind her back and exposed her new accessory. Encasing her right arm was a metal mechanism decked out with gears and bars, as her arm moved, so did the gears. She placed a handwritten note onto his desk.

Izo glanced up at her before picking up the small piece of paper and reading it. On it was scrawled a messy '_I'm sorry'_, the handwriting was almost unreadable, nothing like the particular print Mila usually produced.

"I wrote that with my left hand," Mila said, replying to Izo's scrutinizing look, "I don't have enough use of my arm to write yet, so I'm learning to become left handed."

Nodding, Izo started at her right arm, "And that?"

She lifted her right arm up, gears creaking and cracking. "This is a brace Jim gave me, Blenheim helped him make it, he said it will let me move my arm without putting a lot of strain on it. Eventually I can take it off and use it normally, after some therapy, or at least that's what Jim said."

"Does it hurt now?"

Mila shook her head, "It aches, but I doesn't hurt as much when I move now. Jim said I can start to train with it on as long as I don't put too much stress on it." Izo raised a critical eyebrow, this was leading to their original argument. "And I wanted to ask if you're okay with that?" Mila asked sheepishly.

"Really?" Izo rolled his head to the side, "Because last time you said you didn't care what I said. And didn't you also mention something about Thatch and I not being you're real family?" he asked sarcastically.

"I didn't really mean it, I appreciate your opinion. You and Thatch are really my family, so is everyone on this ship. I don't have anyone else, please don't be mad." Mila begged.

He slowly raised his gaze from Mila's new brace and reached a hand down to his desk draw. Izo pulled out a pink baggy, the ribbon still see cured tightly. The bag was plopped on the desk in front of Mila.

Taking a curious step forward, Mila took a closer look. The wrappings were the same form the Sweet Tooth Candy shop. Mila reached forward hesitantly, glancing up at Izo, who gave her a reassuring nod. Bending her right arm at an odd angle, not quite use to the brace yet, Mila opened the bag. Lollipops flooded out of the bag, spilling onto the desk. Some slipped to the floor, and Mila tried to catch them, but her brace locked up at the quick movement. She bent down and picked up a blue lollipop with her left hand and brought it up to her face to examine it. It was defiantly the same kind from the store she had visited before.

Easing up, she tilted the lollipop toward Izo, "Where did you get these?" she asked.

"A young lady came to the ship while you were hiding in your room, she wanted to give you theses and thank you for saving her brother, the man in the alley you saved. She worked at the candy shop you had visited apparently. Did you know they were related?"

The blue haired girl nodded, "The hair color gave it away." She regarded Izo carefully, "Why are you giving them to me now?"

"You want me to forgive you, right" Mila nodded. "But family doesn't have to ask for forgiveness, for you there is nothing to forgive. The girl never gave up on her brother, like I will never give up on you. I will always be here for you Mila, I might not approve of your decisions or your attitude, but I will never leave you. Just like Thatch or Pops won't. I hate to break it to you, but your suck with us."

Mila's smile seemed contagious it was so bright, "I'm okay with that!" She eagerly unwrapped her lollipop and stuck it between her lips. Izo grinned at the girl, who spun the lollipop happily, carefree, only her, only Mila.

Something was on his face.

What was on his face?

Why was it on his face?

Why was it so early?

Thatch blindly patted his face for the object disturbing his facial hair. His large hand pulled the object, which turned out to be two things, off his face. He peeled his eyes open to see what he had retrieved.

In hand was a note, a blurry '_I'm sorry' _was scribbled on it, with a little _M_ at the bottom. The other was a yellow lollipop, a yellow that it almost looked radioactive. Thatch's early morning frown broke into a wide grin. That girl, he thought, she's something. He laughed out loud, only Mila could make Thatch laugh that early in the morning.


End file.
